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By the same Translator : 



ANNA LAVATER; 

picture of Swiss Pastoral Life in the 
Last Century. 



FSOM THE GERMAN OF REV. W. ZIETHE. 
PRICE, $1.00. 

RENATA OF ESTE; 

L Chapter from the History of the Refor- 
mation in France and Italy. 

FROM THE GERMAN OF REV. CARL STRAGK. 
PRICE, $1.25. 




Queen Louisa of Pr 



QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA 



OR, 



GOODNESS IN A PALACE. 



(J^rom §nmmx ^oaras.) 



By CATHERINE E. HURST. 




CINCINNATI : HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL DEPARTMENT. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 
NELSON & PHILLIPS, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 






Miss CARO M. BAILEY, 



THIS LITTLE VOLTIME 



Is ^ffectiauatelu Inscribed. 



]sr O T E 




iHE authority to which I have been 
chiefly indebted in the preparation of 
the present volume, and on which it is 
based, is the " Christlicher Volks-Kalender von 
der Diakonissen-Anstalt zu Kaiserwerth am 
Rhein." Published by Samuel Lucas. El- 
berfeld, 1870. Valuable information has also 
been obtained from Baur's " Religious Life in 
Germany," 2 vols. London, 1870 ; and E. H. 
Hudson's " Louisa, Queen of Prussia," 2 vols. 
London, 1874. 
Madison, New Jersey, 
Angztsi 17, 1874. 



,^^--^4 4^^.^. 




Chapter Paqb 

I. Goethe Family — Frankfort-on-the-Main. . . i 

II. Louisa's Youth 15 

III. Betrothal 37 

IV. As Crown Princess 43 

V. Domestic Life 56 

VI. In Paretz % 72 

VIL The Young Queen 81 

^ VIII. Louisa and her Subjects loi 

IX, Supremacy of Napoleon 117 

X. Sunshine and Shadows 131 

XL At Tilsit 142 

XII. Letter to her Father 151 

XIII. The Romance of a Ring 161 

XIV. After the Years of Sorrow 175 

XV. Illness and Death 196 ^ 

^ XVI. The Country and the King 211 



^llnsixKixauB. 



Pagk 
Queen Louisa of Prussia Frontispiece. 

Visiting the Sick 21 

Royalty in a Way-cart 67 

Louisa and her Old Teacher 93 

Eating Black Bread in a Peasant's Cottage ... 103 

Interview with Napoleon 144 



Go forth, little book ! I to others now leave thee ; — 
Go seek among strangers in future thy friends ; 

If worthy, — the worthy will kindly receive thee ; 
If worthless, — neglect is thy worthy amends. 

— Dr. Mills. 



QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 



I. 



^he ^oethe ifawily — :fi|attWoiit-on-the-|^'aJn. 



OWARD the close of the 
last century two princely 
children might have been 
seen in the Grosse Hirsch- 
grabenstrasse, Frankfort- 
on-the-Main, where they 
were amusing themselves 
by pumping water from an 
aeval pump in the door-yard, 
chief servant saw them she 
atly enraged, as might very 
well be supposed, and immediately 
called them away ; but the good old lady who 
tvas entertaining the children bade her servant 




2 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

let them alone. The servant, however, was not 
willing to obey, whereupon the good hostess 
locked her up in a room, and let the children 
pump as much as they wished. This was cer- 
tainly a great triumph for the little folks, and 
when they came to take their departure, they 
thanked their much-loved friend for her great 
kindness, and said they would never forget their 
delightful visit. 

Later in life this indulgent and kind woman 
was rewarded by one of her guests with a 
costly gold ornament, which the recipient con- 
sidered too valuable to be worn except on festal 
occasions. The jewel was kept as a great 
family treasure. 

One of these children, Louisa, the subject of 
this sketch, became the wife of William III,, 
King of Prussia ; and the kind lady who enter- 
tained her was Frau Rath Goethe, mother of the 
great German poet, John Wolfgang Goethe. 

We are not surprised at the leniency of Frau 
Goethe, when we consider that, nearly two- 



THE GOETHE FAMILY. 3 

score years before, she had enjoyed with great 
delight the innocent sports of her own children, 
and never wearied in uniting with them in their 
childish amusements. She was always as play- 
ful as any of the number. We mention one 
out of many amusing incidents illustrating her 
indulgent and child-like disposition. 

One day, when John Wolfgang, her eldest 
child, was about three years of age, and his 
parents were worshiping at church. Master 
Wolfgang found himself in the kitchen, which 
opened out upon the street. In making a selec- 
tion in that forbidden spot of what would give 
him the most pleasure, boy-like, he concluded 
to throw the kitchen crockery out on the pave- 
ment, and enjoy the "smashing music " which it 
would make. When he saw the neighbors, the 
brothers Von. Ochsenstein, the surviving sons 
of the deceased imperial councilor, on the op- 
posite side of the street, laughing at him, he 
felt greatly encouraged, and continued making 
the plates and dishes fly in all directions, until 



4 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

his mother returned from church. Frau Goethe, 
on entering the house, immediately saw the 
mischief with a housewifely horror ; but melting 
into girlish sympathy as she saw how heartily 
little Wolfgang laughed at his escapade, and 
how the neighbors enjoyed the sport, she en- 
tered into the scene with as much enthusiasm 
as the boy himself.* 

While this may seem a great destruction of 
property, it must be remembered that German 
kitchens are supplied cheaply from the Messe, 
or fair, which occurs twice during the year. 
During these fairs, which continue three weeks 
in spring and autumn, the street in Frankfort 
bordering on the river Main is lined on either 
side with the earthen and stone crockery, and 
here the good German housewives can replen- 
ish or furnish in full their entire kitchen for a 
few dollars. 

Nine years after Louisa's first visit to Frau 
Rath Goethe at Frankfort-on-the Main, we find 

* Lewes, Life and Works of Goethe, pp. i8, 19. 



THE GOETHE FAMILY. 5 

her with the king on their return from a tour 
through Westphalia, spending a few days in 
this imperial city with Louisa's sister, the 
Princess Theresa, who was visiting her hus- 
band's relatives. This sister had married 
Prince Alexander of Thurn and Taxis, and his 
parents resided at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in 
their beautiful palace, standing near the grand 
old Eschenheimer Tower, which still bears 
their name.* 

Frau Rath Goethe describes this visit to a 
friend in a letter written July 28, 1799 : 

" Their majesties have been with us at 
Frankfort, and we have done what we could 
to welcome them, I had a very unexpected 
honor. The queen sent her brother to me 
with a kind invitation to come and see her. 
The prince came in the afternoon, and sat 
down and dined with me at my small 
table. 

" At six o'clock we went in his carriage, with 

* Hudson, Louisa, Queen of Prussia, vol. i, p. 221. 



6 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

two footmen behind us, to the palace of Thurn| 
and Taxis. The queen received me with grea^ 
kindness, and talked of the old times and the 
pleasure I had given her in my old house in 
the Grosse Hirschgrabenstrasse." 

Frankfort had suffered much during the war, 
having been captured by the French. The 
inhabitants had been cruelly burdened, and 
some of them quite impoverished, by oppressive 
taxes, and the heavy expense of having troops 
quartered upon them. Frau Rath Goethe had 
suffered so much that she found herself obliged 
to sell her large house on the Grosse Hirsch- 
grabenstrasse, and occupy a smaller one on the 
Ross Market. She was living in this small 
house when the king and queen visited the 
Princess Alexander. 

Although Frau Goethe was no longer able to 
exercise that unbounded liberality and hospi- 
tahty congenial to her disposition, she bore her 
vexations with great equanimity, always look- 
ing on the bright side of life and human nature. 



THE GOETHE FAMILY. 7 

She clung to every pleasant thing around her, 
and much of her time was agreeably spent in 
corresponding with her son and her large circle 
of friends, which included persons of the high- 
est rank in both the social and literary world. 
Those of her letters which have been preserved 
are so like her, that through them we may 
know her intimately, and "to know her is to 
love her." 

Frau Rath Goethe was a widow, and John 
Wolfgang, the poet, was now her only surviv- 
ing child, and he was the joy and pride of her 
heart. He was in the prime of life, one of the 
great men of the day, the brightest ornament 
of the court of Saxe- Weimar, "the Athens of 
Germany," where his genius was fully appre- 
ciated. Her daughter Cornelia lived to be- 
come the wife of the historian, Schlosser, but 
died soon after her marriage. 

Bettina von Arnim, in one of her letters to 
the poet Goethe, amusingly describes a visit 

that she made to his mother. Bettina was 

2 



a QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

greatly attached to, and on very intimate terms 
with, the old lady. She writes : 

"When I called, your mother was not at 
home, but as the servant who opened the door 
said that she was expecting her mistress soon 
to return, I took the liberty of walking into the 
room to the right of the hall. It was very 
nearly dark, and after I had waited in silence 
for some time, I thought I heard sounds, as if 
some creature were moving or breathing in the 
room. I fancied it must be the squirrel which 
had been left by a French prisoner at your 
mother's house when he was quartered there. 
This little animal was a great pet with your 
mother, and he had become very audacious, 
and was up to all kinds of mischief. He had 
even dared to sit on her best head-dress, and 
to nibble the feathers and ribbon. 

"Bettina, hearing mysterious sounds, called 
the squirrel by name, ' Hanschen, Hanschen, 
are you there .'' ' 

" ' It is not Hanschen, but Hans,' answered 



THE GOETHE FAMILY. 9 

a deep voice from the further end of the 
room. 

" ' Then,' says Bettina, * I felt quite abashed, 
for I knew it was no less a person than Queen 
Louisa's brother, the Prince of Mecklenburg, 
but the darkness covered my confusion, and a 
moment after your mother came in, exclaiming, 
* Are you there ? ' 

" ' Yes ! ' we exclaimed both together, and in 
the twilight I then saw a youth with a star on 
his breast. 

" * Frau Rath, may I eat a bacon-salad and 
pancakes with you this evening t ' said the 
prince. 

'• She answered in the affirmative, in her 
usually pleasant way." 

About this time Louisa's father. Prince 
Charles Frederic, presented Frau Goethe with 
a very handsome snuff-box as a token for her 
kindness to his children. The old lady, who 
maintained her position as a councilor's widow, 
had a box at the theater next to the king's box. 



10 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A. 

One evening as she was sitting there enjoying 
the play, and from time to time refreshing her- 
self with a pinch of snuff, (then the custom,) 
and wishing the king, his sons, and other royal 
personages occupying their box to notice her 
snuff-box, she put it forward, and tapped it 
audibly, but for some time they did not observe 
it. She describes with much vivacity her va- 
rious maneuvers to attract attention. At last 
the king said : 

" What a beautiful snuff-box you have, Frau 
Rath Goethe ! " 

" Yes, your majesty," she replied, " and it 
was given to me in remembrance of my dear 
princesses of Mecklenburg." 

Louisa and Frau Goethe one day engaged in 
a long discussion on German literature. The 
pleasure that the queen had from her girlhood 
derived from Goethe's works, especially from 
his simpler poems, deepened the interest that 
she felt in his mother. Yielding to the senti- 
ment of the moment, Louisa unclasped an 



THE GOETHE FAMILY. II 

elegant gold necklace that she was wearing on 
her neck, and gave it to the poet's mother as a 
tribute to the power of genius, and at the same 
time as a souvenir of the many pleasant hours 
spent in her society. 

Frau Rath, observing one evening that this 
brilliant ornament had attracted the attention 
of Madame de Stael, said, with her charac- 
teristic naivete, " Oui, je suis la mere de 
Goethe." 

In the summer of 1870, as we were wending 
our way to the cemetery, in the suburbs of 
Frankfort, to visit the last resting-place of our 
beloved daughter Clara, a friend inquired if we 
had ever seen the old cemetery. On our an- 
swering in the negative, she immediately di- 
rected our steps thither. We had walked but 
a short distance, after passing through the 
quaint gate, when our attention was called to a 
very old, plain-looking grave. As we stooped 
down to read the inscription on the recumbent 
stone slab, which lay almost even with the 



12 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

ground, we were surprised to find the fol- 
lowing : — 

Frau Rath Goethe, (geb. Textor.) 
Born February 19, 1731. 
Died September 13, 1808. 

We could scarcely realize that we were 
standing beside the grave of the mother of 
him who shares with Schiller the high honor 
of having written the best poetry of the Fa- 
therland. For sixty-two years that admired 
and genial woman had been sleeping that sleep 
that " knows no waking." It would seem that 
her very love of children and sympathy with 
their sports were continued after death. As 
the old grave-yard lies between two important 
sections of the city, many of the school chil- 
dren pass twice every day back and forth 
through it, and often stop and take their lunch 
and play their games upon or near the well- 
worn tombstone. 

There is no doubt that the beautiful relation 
of Louisa, when a child, to the Goethe family 



THE GOE THE FAMIL Y. 1 3 

had a very important influence on her later hfe, 
and that it was one of the impulses which con- 
trolled her, many years afterward, when she 
had become a queen, in her cultivation of the 
acquaintance of literary people, and particu- 
larly in aiding and encouraging worthy young 
aspirants to excellence in letters. Her latest 
biographer, in describing this feature of her 
social life and character, says : 

" Goethe makes one of these Mecklenburg 
princesses in his Tasso say, ' I am always 
happy to hear clever people conversing ;' and 

these words describe Queen Louisa's taste, for 

/ 
although she conversed sensibly, fluently, and 

without constraint, yet she preferred listening 
to expressing her own ideas. ; . . 

" The palaces that she and the king occupied 
were open to statesmen, military men, distin- 
guished professors, artists, and authors. . . . The 
queen's natural capacity and highly cultivated 
mind enabled her to take pleasure in such so- 
ciety, although she was entirely free from all 



14 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

affectation and pedantry. She had modest 
views of her own abilities and opinions,"^ and 
sought to improve her own mind by bringing 
out the minds of others. Her conversation, as 
well as her whole behavior, was gently but 
beautifully guided with that feminine tact 
which never failed her, because it sprang from 
an ever-present desire to avoid giving the 
slightest pain or annoyance to others. She 
was always ready to converse with any one, 
always perfectly at ease, and her lively, genial 
manner was all the more winning because she 
was unconscious that she was attracting ad- 
miration." * 

* HacsoN, Louisa, Queen of Prussia, vol. ii, pp. 22, 27, 
29, 30, 95. 



■fS)) 



II. 

'N collecting the incidents of Queen 
Louisa's life we are not surprised to 
find that the German people were en- 
thusiastically fond of her, and that poets vied 
with each other in singing her praises. She 
had grown up in German simplicity, and had 
stored her mind with the best literature that 
the nation had to offer. When these advan- 
tages, crowned by the warm influences of relig- 
ion, appeared united in the person of a young, 
beautiful, affable, and loving queen, how could 
her people do otherwise than love and praise 
her.? 

It was her fortune to live in the darkest 
period of Prussia's history, and few n that 
kingdom suffered so much from its shame and 
ruin ; "Vet she hoped without wavering, and 



1 6 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

Strove to encourage in all the firm belief that, 
by God's assistance, the nation would, Phoenix- 
like, rise out of its ruins to a new and nobler 
life, purified by the fire of affliction it had en- 
dured, and strengthened by its sufferings. 

If Prussia stands to-day at the head of Eu- 
ropean nations, a large portion of its advance- 
ment is traceable directly to the enthusiasm 
inspired by her earnest life, willing sacrifices, 
and fervent prayers. During the late war be- 
tween Germany and France her memory was 
revived in the hearts of the people of the Fa- 
therland in a remarkable manner. The peri- 
odicals abounded in biographies of her. Her 
portrait could be seen at the windows of the 
picture stores ; and so frequent were the ref- 
erences to her, that she seemed to be still 
among the living rather than the dead. She 
was living — for, though dead in appearance, she 
was still speaking. 

But in order to show how she attained such 
a place of honor and love in the hearts of her 



LOUISA'S YOUTH. 1 7 

people — not only of her own, but of the suc- 
ceeding generation — it will be necessary to trace 
her history with some degree of minuteness. 

On the loth of March, 1776, Louisa Augusta 
Wilhelmina Amelia, Princess of Mecklenburg, 
was born in Hanover. She was descended 
from one of the oldest and most famous 
princely families of Germany, for to her an- 
cestors belonged the great Henr}'- the Lion, ot 
the house of Guelph, who lived in the twelfth 
century. The latter gave his daughter in mar- 
riage to the uncle of the last Wendish and 
Obotrite king, from whom came the Mecklen- 
burg line of princes. 

Louisa's father was Charles Louis Frederic, 
Field Marshal, and Governor-General of Han- 
over. He was also reigning duke from the 
year 1794, and Grand Duke of Mecklenburg- 
Strelitz from the year 181 5. The mother was 
Frederica Caroline Louisa, daughter of George, 
Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. Louisa was 
the sixth child of these parents. 



15 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

She, with her brothers and sisters, suffered 
a severe loss in early life. Their mother died 
on the 22d of May, 1782, when Louisa was but 
six years of age. The afflicted father went 
with his six children to the castle of Herren- 
hausen, which lies near Hanover, In this 
beautiful chateau, surrounded by the most ex- 
quisite gardens, he lived for- some years in 
rural simplicity. He felt it his duty, however, 
later to marry again, that his children, who 
were still young, might have the benefit of a 
mother's love and care. He accordingly mar- 
ried the sister of his deceased wife, the Prin- 
cess Charlotte Wilhelmina Christina, on the 
2 1 St of September, 1784, at Darmstadt. Louisa 
was present at the marriage, and remained at 
Darmstadt during the following winter with her 
relatives. Her healthy, joyous nature won the 
hearts of all. In the summer she returned to 
her parents in their palace at Herrenhausen. 

The duke and his children were very soon 
again called to pass through severe affliction. 



LOUISA'S YOUTH. 1 9 

On the 1 2th of December, 1785, the duchess 
died, having been permitted but fourteen 
months to have charge of her sister's children. 
She left an infant, Charles of Mecklenburg, who 
afterward became Prussian General of Infantry, 
and chief of the Guards. He distinguished 
himself in the War of Liberation against Na- 
poleon I., particularly at Katzbach and Leipsig, 
and died in Berlin in the year 1839. 

After the death of the duchess the duke 
bade farewell to Hanover, and took his chil- 
dren to Darmstadt, where they could have the 
loving care of their grandmother. She was a 
true woman in heart and soul, and did every 
thing in her power to develop the intellectual 
abilities of these motherless children, and lead 
them in the ways of virtue and religion. She 
selected, as governess for Louisa, Fraulein Ge- 
lieur, a Swiss lady of superior worth. This 
individual accomplished her task satisfactorily, 
and Louisa showed her gratitude to her gov- 
erness by a life-long attachment. 



20 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

Only once, in after times did the queen com- 
plain of her education — that it was more 
French than German, It was the custom in 
those times among the aristocracy to use the 
French language, and follow the French fash- 
ions. The German language and German 
usages were not considered genteel enough. 
Louisa deeply regretted that she had in her 
childhood imbibed this false idea, and she 
exerted herself later in life to retrieve the 
error. Apart from this, her education was 
well directed. 

She was easily brought to a child-like adora- 
tion of God and admiration of his great works, 
and was taught the truly royal way of well- 
doing. With her governess accompanying her, 
Louisa was allowed to visit the cottages of the 
poor and the bedsides of the suffering. Often 
did she bring joy to the hearts of the sick and 
needy by her gifts, and dry the tears of the 
sorrowful by her gentleness and loving smiles. 
Thus early did she practice that humanity and 




Visiting tifie Sick. 



LOUISA'S YOUTH. 23 

courtesy which, in later years, won for her all 
hearts, 

The*attachment of Louisa to this governess, 
Fraulein Gelieur, was intense, and suffered no 
abatement after the pupil became a queen. 
The governess, however, survived Louisa, and 
after her death her husband, the king, carried 
out a cherished wish to express personally his 
gratitude for the life-long interest which the 
Fraulein had manifested in the one who had 
been to him a loving and devoted wife. After 
the allied monarchs had made their entrance 
into Paris, in 18 15, as victors over Napoleon, 
Frederic William, with the crown prince, made 
his homeward journey through Switzerland, in 
part to see the princedom of Neuchatel, but 
more particularly to visit the aged governess 
of the late queen, Fraulein Gelieur lived in 
an obscure village called Colombier, on the 
lake of Neuchatel, with her brother, who was 
pastor of the place. What a joyful surprise 
when she recognized in that unostentatious 



24 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

officer the husband of her former pupil ! After 
the horrors of war and the festivities of victory, 
the king wished to give an hour to the melan- 
choly yet loving remembrance of his never- 
to-be-forgotten Louisa. On his departure he 
gave to the old lady, besides several other 
handsome presents, an expensive shawl, which 
the queen had worn only a short time before 
her death. This beautiful gift moved the gov- 
erness to tears. 

We find an exquisite and affecting story, 
which is taken from the " Miihlheimer Chron- 
icle," illustrating Louisa's character when a 
child. The incident occurred while she lived 
at Miihlheim with her grandmother, the land- 
gravine from Hesse. The children of the serv- 
ants belonging to the royal household were 
allowed to play in the palace garden with the 
Princesses Louisa and Frederica, and their 
governess often went with them to visit these 
children living in the neighborhood of the pal- 
ace. Louisa was never happier than when 



LO UISA 'S YOU TH. 2$ 

allowed to partake with her playmates of their 
homely meal of black bread and thick milk, and 
join with them in their innocent sports. 

One day, as they were playing in the palace 
garden, a thunder-storm came on very unex- 
pectedly. The lightning and thunder were 
terrific, and each mother from the different 
tenement houses hurried to the palace garden 
to take her children home. One little girl, 
named Hannah, was left behind, for she had no 
mother. She was the daughter of the first 
laufer (a running footman, who must keep 
pace with a carriage) of the landgravine, and 
who was cared for by an aunt, who had no 
affection for her. When the Princess Louisa 
saw that she had no protector she took Han- 
nah in her arms to a place of shelter, and said 
to her, 

"Be quiet, dear Hannah; do not be afraid 
of the thunder and lightning and rain, for 
our dear Saviour sends it ; and do not be 
sad, for you are not alone. I am with you, 



26 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

and your father will come soon and take you 
home." 

Hannah, looking earnestly in Louisa's face, 
replied, 

" Who will take care of me when my father 
dies ? " , 

" Who says that your father will die ? " 
quickly answered the little princess. 

" Oh, my aunt says that he suffers so much 
from pain in his breast when he must run so 
rapidly to keep pace with the horses, and that 
he can live but a very short time." 

Louisa was shocked at this reply, and turned 
quite pale. She had never for one moment 
thought, when driving out in her grandmother's 
elegant equipages, that the brilliantly-dressed 
laufer, with his golden saber at his side, run- 
ning so gracefully, could ever become fatigued. 
Now for the first time in her life she con- 
sidered the subject, and pressing little Hannah 
near her heart, large tears found their way 
down her rosy cheeks, falling on her little 



LOUISA'S YOUTH. 2/ 

friend's forehead. She embraced Hannah more 
tenderly, and told her to be very quiet, for she 
did not wish to see her weeping. 

"Be assured," she continued, "your father 
shall not die ; for I will tell this to grandma, 
and she will give him another position." 

When evening came, and Louisa was in the 
presence of her grandmother, she quickly re- 
lated, with tears streaming from her eyes, Han- 
nah's simple story about her father, and told 
her grandmother that she could never more 
have any pleasure in driving while she knew 
that the footmen were sacrificing their health 
in consequence of it. She continued further, 
weeping bitterly : 

" O, grandma, I know that you can have no 
more pleasure, either, now that you know how 
much these poor men suffer. Will you not 
think about it 1 " 

The grandmother patted her sweet grand- 
child's cheek, and, with soothing and encour- 
aging words, sent the child to bed. 



28 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

The good landgravine then paced her room 
in deep thought, and never again was she seen 
with footmen attending her carriage during her 
pleasure drives. This barbarous custom of the 
mediaeval times was, in that royal household, 
from that time abandoned. 

A short time after the above occurrence the 
scarlet fever, in its most malignant form, ap- 
peared in Miihlheim and the surrounding 
country. The groups of children who were 
accustomed to play in the palace garden be- 
came smaller and smaller. One after another 
of them was attacked with the fearful disease, 
and many of them were laid in their little 
graves. One day Hannah was missed from 
the circle, and the news soon came that she, 
too, had become a victim to this dreaded dis- 
ease. The landgravine gave orders that a 
physician should attend her daily, and report 
to the palace. Days, and even weeks, passed 
without any hope of the recovery of the little 
sick one. Finally, one day, greatly to the joy 



L VISA ' S YO UTH. 29 

of all in the palace, the physician reported that 
the fever had left her, and she would very soon 
recover. A few days later the landgravine felt 
that it would be safe to visit the little friend' of 
her granddaughter. As she came near the 
laufer's house she saw that the window of the 
sick room was raised, and the curtain drawn 
aside. She looked in unobserved, and, to her 
great surprise, found her grandchild Louisa sit- 
ting at the foot of the bed reading to her little 
playmate, while Hannah was amusing herself 
with the princess' embroidered pocket-handker- 
chief. The landgravine did not enter, but left 
unobserved, as she had came. We can well 
imagine her very great anxiety at beholding 
her granddaughter in this sick room, exposed 
to the frightful disease. 

Louisa had great taste for sketching from 
nature, and was allowed an hour each day to 
go out alone while the governess was otherwise 
engaged with her sister. She had taken ad- 
vantage of this hour, and had been in the habit 



30 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

during Hannah's illness of visiting her when- 
ever it was possible to find admittance to the 
sick room. 

When Louisa returned home the grand- 
mother said, 

" Where have you been, my child ? " 

Looking up at her very much frightened, she 
replied, 

" O, grandma, I have been with a sick child, 
who has no mother and no grandmother like 
you are, and who would have died long ago if 
I had not visited her. Will you not forgive 
me, dear grandma, for not telling you of my 
visits to her before .-' " 

" You know, my child, this disease could so 
easily have taken you from us, and what would 
we then do .? Oh, the grief we would have at 
your loss ! " said the old lady, giving way to con- 
vulsive sobbing, and embracing her loved one. 

" I knew well," replied Louisa, " that I would 
not get the disease, for der liebe Gott — the dear 
God — saw that I was doing good." 



LO UISA 'S YO UTH. 3 1 

Now we must return to Louisa's later youth. 
It was a great joy to her that in her four- 
teenth year, she was allowed to make a visit to 
her aunt, wife of the Count Palatine, Maximilian 
of Zweibrucken, who was living at Strasburg. 
Louisa possessed an unusually deep apprecia- 
tion of the charms of nature, as well as of 
every thing that was beautiful. She was par- 
ticularly attracted by the magnificence of the 
great minster at Strasburg, and wished to 
ascend the three hundred and twenty-five steps 
which lead to the platform roof of the cathedral, 
that she might enjoy the extended view pre- 
sented there. Her grandmother, after a little 
hesitation, gave her consent, and on reaching 
the place, Louisa was so delighted that she 
wished to mount the other four hundred steps, 
which lead to the very top of the tower. But 
when the governess told her she felt giddy, and 
dare not go further, Louisa immediately yield- 
ed, and returned with her. 

Louisa's two visits to Frankfort-on-the-Main 



32 Q UEEN LO VISA OF PR US SI A . 

were among her most pleasant recollections. 
They took place during the coronation of the 
two last German emperors, Leopold II., on the 
I St of September, 1790, and Francis I., on the 
17th of July, 1792. 

These coronations were magnificent festive 
occasions. The State jewelry was brought 
from Nuremburg and Aix-la-Chapelle to the 
cathedral in a coach drawn by six span of 
horses. The new emperor rode from his pal- 
ace to the same place in magnificent proces- 
sion, preceded by the electors in their official 
robes, surrounded by the deputies of the city, 
bearing a canopy over him, the officers of the 
court by his side, and his body-guards and the 
city guards following. Bringing up the rear — 
on foot, on horseback, and in carriages — came 
the emperor's and the electors' followers, while 
banners were flying and drums constantly 
sounding. Having arrived at the cathedral, 
the king stood on the high altar and took the 
oath on the Four Gospels, (the copy belonging 



LOUISA'S YOUTH. 33 

to Aix-la-Chapelle,) while high mass was being 
performed. Then he was anointed by the 
Elector of Mayence, in archiepiscopal robes, 
having the sword of Charles V. girt about him. 
After partaking of the Lord's Supper, he 
ascended to the imperial throne with the 
crown on his head, while from the high al- 
tar was intoning, " Lord God, we praise 
thee." Meanwhile the bells were ringing, 
cannons thundering, and the people loudly 
acclaiming. 

Immediately after this solemnity the pro- 
cession again formed, and escorted the emperor 
to the Romer Palace. The road was laid with 
cloth, embroidered with red, black, and gold, 
which, immediately after the procession had 
passed, was seized by the people and torn 
into a thousand pieces. 

All this princely splendor of the declining 
German empire Louisa witnessed with great 
interest, as one can readily imagine. 

A fact, although insignificant in appearance, 



34 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

is worthy of attention, because it testifies to^ 
the simplicity and industry of the young prin- 
cess. Louisa, when afterward queen, related j 
that the shoes which she wore on the occasion! 
of one of these coronations, which, in conform- 
ity with the fashion, must be of silk, were made 
by her own hands. 

But much more than such display did Louisa 
enjoy the sight of the homely town life which 
she was permitted to look upon in the house of 
Frau Rath Goethe, the mother of the German 
poet. Here, on one occasion, she, with her 
brother, saw the old lady comfortably eating a 
bacon salad, with omelets, and it afforded the 
two great pleasure to be asked to join her at 
this meal. They did not leave the table until 
every morsel was eaten. 

These short excursions, which Louisa made 
in her fourteenth and sixteenth years to Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main, were followed by a journey to 
Hildburghausen to see her eldest sister, the 
wife of the reigning duke. She was accom- 



LOUISA'S YOUTH. ^ 35 

panied by her grandmother and her younger 
sister Frederica. They found it necessary to 
make this journey on account of the war. 
Germany at this time was waging war against 
France, and the country along the Rhine was 
in great danger. Frankfort-on-the-Main was, 
in the course of a single week, in the posses- 
sion of the French ; the Prussians, however, 
pressed forward, and the French were obliged 
to give up the city. 

Frederic William II. commanded a part of 
his troops in person. His sons, the Crown 
Prince Frederic William and Prince Louis, 
shared the dangers and glories of the war, as 
was always the custom with the Prussian 
princes. 

Those who had taken refuge in Hildburg- 
hausen during the winter were able to return 
to Darmstadt in the spring. The Landgrave 
of Hesse, an ally of Frederic William II., wrote 
to the landgravine that she might return by way 
of Frankfort. Frederic William had chosen 



36 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

this city for his head-quarters, and Louisa and 
her sister were now permitted to be intro- 
duced to the king, to whom they were related. 
The wife of the king and the deceased mother 
of the princesses were cousins. 



III. 




I HE king was delighted to find in his 
young relatives so many excellent 
qualities. Louisa had grown tall and 
stately, and made, by her youthful beauty, as 
well as by her gentle and noble, yet plain and 
simple nature, a deep impression. Her clear 
blue eyes were the mirror wherein was re- 
flected her pure spirit. In her disposition 
were blended a gentleness and nobility of soul 
seldom to be met with. They were manifested 
in every word and beamed in every glance. 
This blending of sweetness and gentleness with 
a certain exaltedness of character, one might 
almost say a moral pride, was the power where- 
by she influenced so deeply and permanently 
all who knew her. 



38 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A 

The landgravine was expecting to leave the 
same evening for Darmstadt, but an invitation 
to dine with the king deferred the journey. 
On this occasion the Prussian princes were 
also present, and had the opportunity of be- 
coming acquainted with the daughters of the 
Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The 
Crown Prince Frederic William saw Louisa, 
and that first sight was decisive. " She is the 
one, or none other on earth," whispered a voice 
within to the prince, as he afterward confessed. 
Louisa had a similar premonition. 

No political or family considerations had any 
influence here. This union was one of true af- 
finity, and though it was not settled that even- 
ing, the preliminary steps were taken. For 
such a man as the prince, Louisa was the 
proper person. 

" In later years," so relates Bishop Eylert, 
after death had dissolved the happy marriage, 
" the king remembered with especial pleasure 
the remarkable, and to him ever new and fresh. 



BETROTHAL. 39 

impression which Louisa made on him when 
he saw her for the first time in Frankfort, 
The moment of the new acquaintance was also 
the moment of mutual affection." 

" We find," said the king, when speaking to 
the bishop of this mutual sympathy which 
unites congenial hearts, "in Schiller's writings 
some very beautiful lines, where it is excellently 
and truly shown how, at first sight, this mutual 
love is conceived. In our case it was no senti- 
mental fancy, but a clearly-marked conscious- 
ness, which at the same time caused us both to 
weep. O God, what worlds lie between that 
first moment when I found her and this, 
wherein I deplore her loss ! With pleasure I 
recall the past, and often wish to read those 
lines of Schiller again ; but I cannot find 
them." 

Eylert read the following lines of Schiller to 
the king : — 

" How it did chance, I ask myself in vain : — 
Whence she did come, and how she did discover 



40 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

Herself to me, that ask I, — For as I 

Did turn my eyes, I found her by my side ; 

And darkly powerful, wonderful, her presence 

Laid hold on me, my very inmost being. 

Her witching smile, so pure, it was not moved me ; 

The charms 'twas not, which on her cheeks so played, 

Nor e'en the glance of her bright eye so pure : — 

It was her deepest and most secret life 

That moved in me such strong and holy powet. 

As force of spell incomprehensibly acts — 

Gur souls appeared, without the help of speech 

Or any means, themselves to touch in spirit, 

E'en as my breath did mingle there with hers ; 

Quite strange to me, and yet she only trusted, 

And clear at once I felt it in me grow : 

She is the one, or else none other on earth ! 

That is the love of holy heaven's beam, 

Which in the soul doth deeply strike and burn 

When it discovers affinities to affinities. 

There can be no resistance and no choice ; 

Let man not loose what heaven itself hath bound ! " 

" Yes, yes," answered the king, after he had 
heard the words of the poet, " that is the piece, 
and I think it very beautiful. But it makes 
now quite another impression. The roses have 
fallen, and only the thorns remain. There is 
more in marriage than in poetry ! The latter 



BETROTHAL. 4 1 

is to me now too sickening. I dare not give 
myself to it. It weakens one, and is not 
adapted to those duties which devolve upon 
me in these heavier and sterner times." 

Prince Louis was attracted to Frederica in 
the same manner as his elder brother was to 
Louisa. The following month, on the 24th of 
April, 1793, the double betrothals were sol- 
emnized at Darmstadt. The king himself 
changed the rings between the affianced cou- 
ples. The crown prince was twenty-three 
years old, Louisa a month before had com- 
pleted her seventeenth year. 

Two days afterward the princes returned 
with their father to the camp, leaving the two 
affianced brides in Darmstadt to wait until the 
war was over. At the end of May they visited 
with their grandmother the head-quarters of the 
king at Bodenheim, in order to have an inter- 
view with the princes. 

In Goethe's account of the " Siege of May- 
ence," he gives a lively description of his visit 



42 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

to the German camp at Bodenheim, where he 
saw the two princesses, Louisa and Frederica. 
He says, " I accompanied my most gracious 
sovereign to the left wing, and waited for the 
Landgrave of Darmstadt, whose camp was 
beautifully ornamented with branches of fir. 
The king's tent, however, exceeded any thing 
of the kind I have ever seen. It was com- 
fortable, beautifully adorned, and really luxu- 
riant. As evening approached a spectacle of 
remarkable interest was prepared for us. 

"The princesses of Mecklenburg had dined 
at head-quarters in Bodenheim with his majesty 
the king, and now were making an informal 
visit to the camp. I stepped quietly back 
into my tent, and could carefully observe 
these princely ladies, who promenaded imme- 
diately before my tent. And I must say, that, 
in the midst of the havoc and din of war, these 
two ladies seemed to me to be apparitions frem 
heaven, and they made upon me an impression 
never to be effaced." 




IV. 

HE King of Prussia was very much 
opposed to the tardy campaign. He 
had commenced the war in the 
thought and hope, as he had before expressed 
it to the widow of Frederic the Great, to 
quench the frightful outbreak of anarchy, which 
desolated France, and would soon have over- 
run the whole continent. To accomplish this 
purpose he summoned his whole might, and 
showed genuine Prussian zeal and courage in 
declaring war against the Revolution. His 
sons gave repeated proofs of their bravery and 
intrepidity. Thus, at the bombardment of 
Verdun, as the king and the crown prince, who 
were on horseback, remained in the midst of 
the Prussian artillery, a ball struck the ground 
only a few paces from them. 



44 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA 

" Your majesty exposes yourself too much," 
said the prince. 

" Frederic exposed himself still more at 
Kunersdorf," answered the king, and rode on 
with the crown prince ; but on the other side 
of a battery he added, " Truly it would be a 
triumph to the enemy if they could- say they 
had shot the King of Prussia after they had 
taken prisoner the French king." 

They had gone, however, but a few steps 
further before they saw another cannon-ball 
strike still nearer to them. 

" Sire, I beg you, let me remain here alone ! " 
said the crown prince. 

" No," answered the king, " I shall remain 
here to be a witness of your coolness." 

Also, when Frankfort was taken by storm 
under the Prussian General Rtichel, the king 
and the crown prince were in the midst of a 
fierce cannonade. 

The greatest danger, however, befel Prince 
Louis, Wearied by duty, he had thrown himself 



AS CROWN PRINCESS. 45 

down on his couch in his own room near to th6 
fire-place, in which a bright fire burned. He 
fell asleep, and while thus unconscious the 
couch caught fire, and was soon in a flame. 
His clothes were already burning, when a sen- 
try rushed in and saved him from a horrible 
death. Every thing he had became a prey to 
the flames. The crown prince then made it 
the subject of a joke, and made a collection 
from the queen and her followers "for the 
poor burnt-out man." 

As a counterpart to this rescue of Prince 
Louis by the Pomeranian dragoon may be 
mentioned the fearlessness with which Prince 
Louis Ferdinand, in the same campaign, car- 
ried an Austrian soldier from under the hostile 
musket-fire. It occurred on the 14th of July, 
1793, when the prince and an Austrian regi- 
ment were repulsed by the enemy. A soldier 
belonging to that regiment, having received a 
wound in his shoulder, sank to the ground 
from weakness. None of his comrades, how- 



46 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

ever, dare go to his aid, for fear of falling into 
the hands of the enemy. Not even the reward 
which the prince offered to any one who would 
save the poor helpless man induced any of 
them to expose his life. 

" If none of you will take pity upon a poor 
comrade, I will show you what a soldier's duty 
is," said the prince, and he rushed to the wound- 
ed man, and brought him back to the regiment 
unhurt by the fire of the enemy, who now 
aimed directly at him. This deed made Prince 
Louis Ferdinand very much beloved by the 
army, and even with the Austrians he was a 
great favorite, so much so that they offered him 
high promotion if he would fight under the im- 
perial flag. But he answered that it only be- 
came a Prussian prince to fight under Prussian 
colors. 

The last battle which the Prussians fought 
in this campaign under the eye of their sov- 
ereign was that at Pirmasens, from whose 
heights they drove the French triumphantly. 



AS CROWN PRINCESS. 47 

The enemy left on the field four thousand 
dead, two thousand prisoners, and ninety-eight 
cannon. 

Notwithstanding such bravery and success- 
ful feats of arms, it did not go well with the 
united German armies. In proportion as they, 
in the commencement, made great advance- 
ment, so afterward did they make slow prog- 
ress. The Duke of Brunswick, at the time of 
the storming of Frankfort, was at variance with 
General Ruchel. The king had given the latter 
the order to attack ; but while he was prepar- 
ing to lead his columns forward, the Duke, by 
a counter order, stopped the movement, and 
would hear nothing of an attack on the city. 
This one event marked the whole course of the 
war. Under such circumstances it is not sur- 
prising that the king lost all interest in the 
campaign. In September he returned to Ber- 
lin, and soon his sons followed him thither. 

Nothing now prevented the marriage of the 
betrothed ones. The two princes, Frederic 



48 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

William and Louis Ferdinand, started home- 
ward at the close of November, visiting their 
affianced on their journey, and arriving in Ber- 
lin on the 8th of December, 1793. 

Eight days later, Louisa, with her sister 
Frederica, departed from Darmstadt, in order 
to go to the capital of the kingdom, whose 
queen she was in future to be. On their route 
they visited Wurzburg, Hildburghausen, Wei- 
mar, Leipzig, and Wittenberg, arriving at Pots- 
dam on the 2 1 St of December, On the follow- 
ing day, the 22d, they made their entrance into 
Berlin, It was a day of universal rejoicing in 
that great capital. Very early in the morning, 
throngs of people could be seen in the streets. 
It seemed as if all Berlin were going out of the 
Brandenburg gate to meet the princess, of 
whose rare beauty and amiability all had heard. 
The crown prince and Prince Louis, who on 
the 20th had gone to meet the affianced brides, 
had returned, and were waiting to receive them 
at the royal palace in Berlin, 



AS CROWN PRINCESS. 49 

In Schonberg, a village about half a mile 
from the city, on the road to Potsdam, the 
guilds and corporation of Berlin were stationed 
to escort the State carriage into the city. The 
order for the procession had been previously 
arranged with great minuteness. The etiquette 
for such occasions demanded that the carriage 
of an arriving princess should always be pre- 
ceded by one containing several chamberlains, 
in order that they might be able to receive her 
immediately on descending from her carriage. 
This mode of procedure was to have been ob- 
served on this day ; but some of the citizens 
objected to the arrangement, because it seemed 
as though they were escorting the chamber- 
lains, and they insisted that the carriage of the 
princess should come first ; " for," said they, 
" we go out to meet the princess, and not the 
chamberlains." The Court-marshal, after much 
hesitation, yielded to the citizens. A great 
multitude had gone out to Schonberg, that 
they might, as soon as possible, get a glance at 



50 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

the future queen ; they then accompanied the 
procession, which took its way slowly through 
the Brandenburg gate, and then along Leipsig- 
street and William-street to Linden-street, 
amid continuous huzzaing. The end of Lin- 
den-street, where the monument of Frederic 
the Great stands, with the royal palace on 
the one side and the university buildings on 
the other, was the central point of attraction. 
There was a great triumphal arch built, richly 
adorned with symbolical pictures, after the 
manner of those erected in olden time to do 
honor to returning victorious warriors. 

At this place were assembled a large group 
of children, for the purpose of welcoming and 
congratulating the lovely princess. On the 
one side stood the boys, and on the other side 
the girls ; the latter were dressed in white, and 
their heads adorned with wreaths. They had 
prepared a poem of welcome for Louisa, in 
which they said that the Prussian people had 
feared, when the crown prince went forth to 



AS CRO WN PHINCESS. 5 I 

the war, that he might be defeated, but now 
they were rejoiced to see him return as con- 
queror and conquered — conqueror over the 
French, and conquered by the most charming 
of princesses. A lovely little girl, who so 
beautifully recited the verses, so charmed the 
princess by her sweetness, that she stooped 
down and drew the child to the carriage win- 
dow and kissed her several times, much to the 
chagrin and horror of the Countess Von Voss, 
the lady in waiting, who sat with Louisa in the 
carriage, and who declared this spontaneous 
action contrary to all rules of court etiquette. 
She exclaimed : 

" What has your Royal Highness done ? 
That is exceedingly improper ! " 

" What ! " answered Louisa simply ; " am I 
allowed to do this no more ? " 

The people were rejoiced at this incident, 
which so beautifully gave them a glimpse of 
her disposition. They felt that she would not 
only be the queen, but the mother of her 



52 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A. 

people. Every tongue was burdened with her 
praise. 

The kindness with which she received the 
first present in the city which in future was to 
be her home, the thoughtfiil words of gratitude 
that she gave to those who presented it, and 
the amiableness of disposition of which her 
every act testified, laid the first stone of that 
monument which she afterward built for herself 
in the hearts of the Prussians. 

From the triumphal arch the procession pro- 
ceeded to the royal palace, where Louisa, with 
her sister, was received by the royal family 
and the two princes. On Christmas Eve the 
marriage of the crown prince and Louisa was 
celebrated with great pomp and magnificence, 
the diamond crown of the house of Prussia 
being placed on her fair brow. The royal pair 
were united according to the forms of their 
faith in the brilliantly illuminated white saloon. 
Kneeling on an elegant cushion, under a can- 
opy of crimson velvet, surmounted by two 



AS CRO WN PRINCESS. 5 3 

crowns, Bishop Sack pronounced the benedic- 
tion. The booming of seventy-two cannon 
announced that the ceremony was over. 

After the family had partaken of the banquet 
which had been so elaborately prepared for 
them, under a covering made of crimson velvet 
embroidered with gold, they returned to the 
saloon, where they joined in the dance, each 
bearing a lighted torch, according to the cus- 
tom of the Middle Ages. Eighteen State min- 
isters joined the procession, and marched 
slowly and solemnly to the sound of the music. 

The citizens of Berlin wished to celebrate 
this great occasion by a general illumination of 
the city. The crown prince told them that it 
would please him far better if they would use 
the money which it would cost for an illumina- 
tion for the benefit of the widows and orphans 
of those who had fallen in the war. It was 
done, and the members of the royal family each 
contributed toward the fund, so that many a 
poor family was made happy, and spent a mer- 



54 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

rier Christmas than they otherwise could have 
done. 

In order that as many of the citizens as 
practicable might enjoy the festivities of the 
royal household, the king commanded that a 
large number of tickets should be distributed. 
These were given, however, to a great extent, 
to the officers of the royal household, who ap- 
peared in their uniforms. When the old king 
saw how few persons clothed as citizens were 
present; he was very much irritated at the im- 
proper fulfillment of his commands. 

" Do you not see enough embroidered collars 
about you .'' " he muttered. " I wish to see the 
holiday dresses of civilians also. The day after 
to-morrow, at the second wedding, (that of 
Prince Louis and Princess Frederica,) let no 
tickets be given out, but admit all who have 
on a proper coat." 

This command, which was precisely obeyed, 
caused the apartments of the palace to be filled 
with spectators from all stations in life. 



AS CROWN PRINCESS. 55 

The crowd was so great that it was very 
difficult for any one to pass about. The king 
himself, who was a large, corpulent man, could 
not make any progress, not even with the aid 
of the people, who tried to make room for him. 
After many vain attempts he bethought him- 
self, and, instead of going directly forward, he 
turned himself and went sidewise, with his 
right elbow in advance. Then he said to the 
crowd pleasantly : 

"Don't inconvenience yourselves, children. 
The bridegroom's father must not allow him- 
self to-day more space than the bridal pair." 

On Christmas Day the crown prince and 
Louisa went first to the royal cathedral, and 
from thence to their beautiful but plain palace, 
where Frederic William, as crown prince and 
as king, lived all his life. 




V. 

HE married and domestic life of the 
newly-married pair was established 
in the fear of God, simplicity of 
heart, purity of purpose, and true love, and this 
was to the whole land a worthy example of 
German home-life. A happier or more perfect 
bond than this could not exist — a bond of two 
noble and congenial hearts, though varying in 
talents and disposition. 

The crown prince was said to be the hand- 
somest man in Prussia. He was tall and finely 
proportioned, with a military bearing, a calm 
brow, dark blue eyes, and an open, intellectual 
countenance. He was very earnest, and ap- 
peared to some reserved and morose. He 
talked but little, and then usually in short sen- 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 57 

tences, and explained his meaning in few, but 
intelligible words. With his earnestness he 
united great mildness of nature, and was so 
willing and condescending, and, above all, so 
conscientious, that he made a lasting impres- 
sion on those with whom he came in contact. 
Louisa was tall and slender, with a face that 
combined great beauty of feature with a very 
sweet expression. Her manner was elegant 
and dignified, her voice clear and musical, her 
conversation brilliant and engaging. She pos- 
sessed a joyous disposition, which had not been 
suppressed in her youth, but, on the contrary, 
had been developed and unfolded by her free, 
unrestrained education. She was always hap- 
py, and knew well how to cheer and encourage 
her husband when oppressed with the cares of 
the world. She was, indeed, a help-meet, and 
became indispensable to him. 

It was the custom in those times for hus- 
bands and wives to address each other as 

"you," (sie,) instead of "thou," (du,) after the 
6 



58 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

French custom. The crown prince and Louisa 
did not adhere to this custom, and used the 
familiar term " thou." 

They never felt at home at court — nowhere 
but in their own little palace. When they re- 
turned to this loved home from the festivities 
of the court, the crown prince, with beaming 
countenance, would take his wife's hand, and 
exclaim : 

" Thank God, thou art once more my wife ! " 
And when Louisa would say : 
" And am I not, then, always thy wife } " 
He would reply, with a half-comical sigh, 
" Ah, no ! thou too often art only the crown 
princess ! " 

The confidential manner of the prince and 
princess, with their unembarrassed deportment, 
which was in violation of all usages of court 
etiquette, was to Countess Von Voss, the lady 
in waiting, a matter of serious discomfiture. 
She sought every opportunity to make im- 
provements in the royal household, but with 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 59 

little success. She was especially annoyed 
to know that the crown prince entered his 
wife's apartments without being duly an- 
nounced. 

" Very good," said the prince one day, as the 
lady of ceremonies was favoring him with a 
lecture on the influence of etiquette on the 
future history of the world, " I will submit, and 
in order to show you that I mean what I say, I 
beg to ask if I can have the honor of speaking 
to my consort. Her Royal Highness, the Crown 
Princess } " 

Who could be happier than this mistress of 
ceremonies when she saw the honor of the 
court preserved .'* With a solemn mien she 
went to the apartment of the crown princess to 
beg an audience for her husband, the crown 
prince. What was her astonishment when, 
on entering the room of Louisa, she saw 
the crown prince sitting by her side on the 
sofa! 

" See ! " exclaimed he, smiling, " dear countess, 



6o Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

my wife and I see and speak to each other 
as often as we like, tinannoimced, and thus it is 
in all honorable meetings. You are a charm- 
ing lady of ceremonies, but we are a pair of 
good Christian people," 

On another occasion a similar deception was 
played upon the Countess Von Voss. She had 
arranged that, at a certain court ceremonial, 
the crown prince and princess should ride in a 
carriage with six span of horses, and attended 
by two coachmen and three footmen in elegant 
liveries. He listened to the lady's reasons for 
so grandly arranging every thing for their com- 
fort and pleasure, but at the same time plan- 
ning a proceeding more to his own liking. At 
the appointed hour the carriages came to the 
door of the palace. The prince assisted the 
countess into the one he designed for her, 
closed the door, and ordered the coachman to 
drive on. He had provided for himself and 
Louisa an open carriage, with only two pair of 
horses. This arrangement was much more 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 6 1 

pleasing to the royal pair than the one the 
countess had proposed. 

This royal household was more like that of a 
private citizen than that of a prince. Both 
Frederic William and Louisa had been trained 
to contentment from their childhood, and in 
this respect were well adapted to each other. 
Neither of "them had the slightest desire for 
display. At a later period, when king, Fred- 
eric William said to his newly-married son, for 
whom he had arranged a princely mansion, 

" I had not so grand a palace when I mar- 
ried your mother. I only hope that you may 
be as happy and contented as we were." 

On the loth of March, 1^94, Louisa cele- 
brated her eighteenth birthday in Berlin, the 
first after her marriage. It was for her a day 
of much joy. The court and the city vied 
with each other in doing her honor. The 
king presented to her, as a summer residence, 
the chateau of Oranienburg, which, for a 
long time uninhabited, had been restored and 



62 QUEEN LOUTS A OF PRUSSIA. 

magnificently furnished. As a proof of Lou- 
isa's goodness of heart, on this day she thought 
of the poor and needy. She asked the king if 
he would grant her one more wish, and that wish 
was that she might have " a handful of gold to 
distribute among the poor of Berlin," that they 
might share with her the joy of the day. 

The king answered, smiling, that it depend- 
ed upon how much she considered a handful. 

She quickly replied, for she never was at a 
loss for an answer : 

" As large as the heart of the best of kings." 

And the poor had abundant cause to be 
thankful to Louisa, who all her life lost no op- 
portunity of doi»g them kindnesses. 

In celebration of this day the crown prin- 
cess, together with her sister, gave a feast to 
their servants. Each person was allowed to 
invite several guests, and when they came to 
be seated at the table, eighty individuals were 
counted. Louisa complained that the hundred 
was not completed. 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 63 

She extended the same kindness to the 
unknown children that she met in the castle 
gardens. She took them up, and lovingly em- 
braced them. Once, as a strange little boy ran 
into her arms, Louisa quieted the indignation 
of the court ladies by saying : 

" Let him alone ; a boy must be wild." 

Then tapping the child on the cheek, she 
said in a friendly tone : 

" Run now, my little fellow, and carry a 
greeting from me to your parents." 

She treated the mothers of these children 
that she met in her rambles in the same 
friendly manner. The salutations of her sub- 
jects she always returned with great kindness. 

Immediately after her coronation she wrote 
the following to her grandmother : 

"I am queen, and what rejoices me most is 
the hope that I shall not find it necessary to ? 
count my benefactions." 

She was not satisfied merely to relieve the 
necessity of the moment, but she sought out 



64 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

the cause of the poverty, and prevented it by 
giving employment to the unfortunate. If she 
discovered that the poor owed their necessity 
to themselves, she did not cease to sympathize, 
but said : 

" We ought not to inquire whether the poor 
deserve help. Who can weigh and determine 
that } And in what do we deserve the good- 
ness of God } Is he not all pity and grace ? " 

Louisa resided at the chateau of Oranien- 
burg during the summers of 1794 and 1795. 
Her first son, Frederic William IV., who after- 
ward became king, was born there on the 15 th 
of October, 1795, and her second son, Will- 
iam I., the present king, on the 2 2d of March, 
1797. 

Besides these two sons, she had five other 
children : a daughter, Charlotte, born on the 
13th of July, 1798, who was afterward piarried 
to the Emperor Nicholas of Russia ; Prince 
Charles, born on the 29th of June, 1801 ; 
Alexandrine, born on the 23d of February, 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 65 

1803, afterward Grand Duchess of Mecklen- 
burg-Schwerin ; Louisa, born on the 21st of 
February, 1808, wife of Prince Frederic of the 
Netherlands ; and last. Prince Albert, born on 
the 4th of October, 1809. 

Louisa brought up her children in the fear 
of God, and cultivated in them loving-kindness, 
patriotism, and a disposition for all that was 
noble, good, and holy. The very remarkable 
influence which the queen exercised over her 
" treasures," as she called them, will be seen 
hereafter. 

We have already shown how repulsive the 
formalities of court etiquette were to this 
happy pair, and the chagrin of the lady of 
ceremonies at their undignified behavior. 

We relate another amusing incident, to illus- 
trate the playfulness of Louisa's disposition. 

One warm summer day, in the year 1795, 
while at the chateau of Oranienburg, Louisa 
informed Countess Von Voss that the crown 
prince and herself had decided to take a drive 



66 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA, 

into the woods, and would be pleased to have 
her accompany them. She replied that it 
would give her great pleasure, and hastened to 
join them. But what was her surprise on arriv- 
ing at the door to see the royal pair in a rough 
wagon, to which a pair of large, awkward horses 
were yoked, and without a footman. Louisa 
repeated her invitation, and in vain the crown 
prince joined his persuasion to hers. 

The punctilious countess was not to be 
moved to participate in suck pleasure. With- 
out saying a word, she went back into the 
castle, and the happy pair made their rural 
excursion alone, highly enjoying the joke 
which they had had at the expense of the 
countess. 

Frederic William and Louisa were once 
standing at an open window of the castle in 
Potsdam after they had become king and 
queen. Louisa was holding one of her chil- 
dren in her arras, and allowing it to play with 
a small gold piece. An old man, scantily 



DOMESTIC LIFE. 69 

though cleanly dressed, approached the win- 
dow. He bowed to the king and queen, not 
knowing who they were. 

" Please help, good sir, a poor man who 
has been disowned by his undutiful daughters. 
My only son is a soldier, and is now on the 
frontier." 

The king answered him graciously, without 
further question : 

" Ask this lady, my friend. You see she 
allows her child to play with gold pieces, and 
she will probably have something left for a 
poor old man who has been deserted by his 
children. I have not my purse with me." 

The queen gave the little prince four Fred- 
eric's d'or (^14 40) in his hand, and said to 
him, 

" Give them to the man." 

The prince threw them gladly into the hat 
of the old man, who was quite amazed at re- 
ceiving so much, and turned away from the 
window with tears in his eyes. 



70 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

He had scarcely gone ten steps when the' 
queen called after him : 

" Friend, please return again." 

The old man returned. 

'• What is your name, my friend ? " asked the 
queen. 

" Berghof," he answered. " I was formerly 
a saddler in Brandenburg ; for twenty-three 
years I served Frederic the Great, and was 
discharged as sergeant." 

" Without a pension ? " asked the queen. 

And his answer was, 

"Yes, madam." 

" This gentleman," said she, pointing to the 
king, " says he has not his purse with him ; 
but he has pen, ink, and paper, and his hand- 
writing is as good as gold." 

The king, moved by this good-natured as 
well as 7ialve sally of his sweet wife, went from 
the window, seated himself at his writing-desk, 
and soon returned with a small slip of paper, 
on which were written these words : 



DOMESTIC LIFE. /I 

" Old Berghof of Brandenburg is to receive a 
pension of twelve thai%rs (;^8 64) monthly from 
the extraordinary treasury of war. 

"Frederic William." 

" To THE War Treasury in Berlin." 

Now, for the first time, was Berghof aware 
that he had been addressing the king and 
queen. He wished to give expression to his 
gratitude in the most sincere and heartfelt 
manner possible ; but the king did not wait 
for this scene. He closed the window and went 
quickly away, leaving the old man alone in his 
joyful and extraordinary astonishment. 



VI. 




I HE chateau of Oranienburg was far 
too magnificent for persons of such 
taste as Frederic Wilham and Louisa. 
They often sighed for a quiet home, in which 
they could live without restraint. The crown 
prince, therefore, purchased the estate of 
Paretz, where every thing was ordered simply 
and plainly, yet comfortably. There was no 
expensive furniture, no splendidly adorned 
walls, no curtains of velvet and damask, no 
gold table-service, nor expensive works of 
art. The grounds even owed their beauty to 
nature more than art. Every thing was ar- 
ranged with great simplicity. The prince used 
to say to the architect, " Always bear in mind 
that you are building for a poor proprietor." 



IN PARETZ. 73 

Many happy days were passed at Paretz, 
even after Frederic William had become king. 
One day, when a foreign princess asked Louisa 
if she did not often feel lonely in that hermit- 
age, she received the following reply : 

" Oh no, I am quite happy in being the wor- 
thy ' Lady of Paretz.' " 

And her husband, after being crowned king, 
wished to be regarded by his family and the 
neighborhood only as the "Proprietor of Pa- 
retz," 

There they enjoyed the pleasures of real 
country life ; they hunted, took excursions on 
the water, and joined in the feasts that attend 
harvest-time and church-consecrations. Louisa 
often forgot her " highness-ship," and, along 
with her husband, mixed with the young peas- 
antry in their festivities. Equally pleasant was 
it to her, on the occasion of the yearly fairs at 
Paretz, to go to the booths and buy little bas- 
kets of cake and confectionery, and distribute 
them among old and young. 



74 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

On one occasion she gave to all the children 
of the village new clothes for the harvest festi- 
val When the little girls and boys came in 
procession to the castle to thank her, she felt 
as happy as if she had received the richest 
present herself, and she said to her husband, 
" Except ye become as little children ! " 

In this beautiful retreat the heart of the 
princess was full of joy, "What can give 
greater happiness," she said, " than, -divested 
of one's external greatness, to go, in true noble- 
ness of heart, and rejoice with the joyful and 
sorrow with the sorrowful ? " 

An intense love of nature was one of her 
chief characteristics through life. " Amid the 
quiet and beauty of nature," as she expressed 
it, "she could best rally and collect her mind, 
whose chords, like those of an instrument of 
music, which needed each day to be drawn up 
in order to get the right tone." " If I neglect 
that," she said, " I feel out of harmony, which, 
by the din of the world, is made worse. 



IN PARETZ. 75 

What blessings lie around us that we know / 
nothing of ! " 

A welcome and frequent visitor at Paretz 
was General von Kockeritz, the adjutant of the 
crown prince. This faithful general, who was 
a great favorite at the palace, was, later, con- 
stantly in attendance upon Frederic William 
when king. Louisa was sorry to notice that 
when dinner was finished the general always 
seemed in haste to depart. She asked the 
crown prince why it was that he did so, and 
received the following reply : 

" Let the old man alone ; he must have his 
domestic comfort after dinner." 

Louisa was not satisfied with this answer, 
and inquired further, and soon learned what it 
was that took the general so hastily from the 
table. 

One day, as he arose to leave in his usual 
haste, Louisa immediately went to him with a 
pipe in one hand, and a lighted taper in the 
other, saying : 



'J 6 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

" No/ good general, to-day you must not run 
away, but stay and smoke your accustomed 
pipe with us." 

She put the pipe in the hand of the general, 
and related to her husband how she had long 
tried to find out the cause of his hasty retreat 
from the table. So the old general remained 
and smoked his pipe. 

This act of kindness delighted the crown 
prince, and he said to his wife, 

" Dear Louisa, you did that charmingly." 

Not far from Paretz there lies, in the river 
Havel, Peacock Island. The family often made 
excursions there in summer. Once, after the 
crown prince and Louisa had become king and 
queen, after having dined beneath the shade of 
some pleasant beech-trees, they engaged in 
conversation, their children in the meanwhile 
wandering away from them. Suddenly the 
queen exclaimed, 

" Where are the children } " 

She was told that they were playing in the 



IN PARETZ. 77 

meadow of a young farmer. Then she said to 
the king : 

" Can we not surprise them there ? " 

The king answered that they might, but that 
they must go some distance around in the boat 
in order not to be perceived. 

The king rowed while the queen stood up to 
search for them. 

" Softly, softly," she remarked to the king. 

The surprise was successful. Unnoticed, 
they stepped on shore, and the astonished chil- 
dren sprang toward them, shouting for joy. 

On this same beautiful island there occurred 
another pleasant incident, which, although it 
belongs to a later period, we will relate it here. 
As the king and queen were sitting one calm 
summer evening under the shade of the mag- 
nificent oaks on Peacock Island, they requested 
Bishop Eylert, who was with them, to read a 
sermon that he had recently preached on 
Christian marriage. The text was from the 
beautiful words of Ruth to Naomi : " Entreat 



78 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

me not to leave thee, or to return from follow- 
ing after thee: for whither thou goest, I will 
go ; where thou lodgest, I will lodge : thy people 
shall be ray people, and thy God my God : 
where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be 
buried : the Lord do so to thee, and more also, 
if aught but death part thee and me." 

When he had finished, a holy calm seemed 
to pervade the atmosphere around. Soon the 
stillness was broken, and distant music was 
heard echoing through the air, which came 
from a military band. It was the beautiful 
hymn, " In all my actions I take counsel of the 
Lord." There was a deep silence, and Bishop 
Eylert describes the scene as one of enchant- 
ment. 

" The moon had arisen, and was throwing 
her soft light through the trees. It seemed to 
us as if this lovely island were the temple of 
the living God." 

The- king was the first to break the solemn 
silence. He rose, and laying his hand on 



IN PARE TZ. 79 

Louisa's shoulder, said with great tenderness, 
and a heart full of emotion : 

" This is my intention, dear Louisa — I and 
my house, we will serve the Lord," 

He then left the company, and was very 
deeply affected. He then went down to the 
river, where he was hidden by a small thicket, 
and could meditate alone. 

Louisa, differently from the king, had need 
of more open communication. She then 
spoke to the bishop of the gratitude of her. 
heart, and said : 

" Only in faith can I find support. In the 
longing after happiness I become sensible of a 
deep emptiness in my heart, which nothing 
earthly can satisfy. I can only find peace in 
looking to the Saviour. I have an unspeaka- 
ble love for him. The highest and purest ideal 
of life and action is in him. One prays to him, 
and immediately feels drawn nearer his pres- 
ence ; his eternal, self-sacrificing love has a 
gentle and wonderfully winning power. 



80 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

" What elevates me most, and gives me the 
most happiness, is the thought that the king 
and I fully accord in our religious convictions. 
Through him I have become better. I believe 
he is the best man and Christian on earth. 
Did you hear, as you finished reading your 
sermon, how he said with heartfelt emotion, 
* This is my intention — I and my house, we will 
serve the Lord } ' I wonder where he is, my 
best friend ! Come and let us seek him." 



VIL 




IHREE deaths, following one after an- 
other, threw the royal family into 
deep sorrow. On the 28th of De- 
cember, 1796, Prince Louis died of malignant 
fever, at the age of twenty-two years. On the 
13th of January, 1797, Elizabeth Christine, 
widow of Frederic the Great, died. She had 
reached the advanced age of eighty-two years. 
She was distinguished for her kindness to the 
poor, and was greatly venerated by Louisa. 
When King Frederic William II. heard the 
news of her death, he remarked to a friend that 
he would soon follow her. His sickness in- 
creased and his strength diminished until the 
1 6th of November, 1797, when he died. 
The crown prince now ascended the throne 



82 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

as Frederic William III, He and Louisa now, 
as king and queen, contented themselves with 
the same palace in which they had spent the 
first part of their married life. It had become 
dear to them, and therefore they continued to 
live in it in their simple and unostentatious 
manner. The whole country looked with pride 
upon their new king and queen, who were dis- 
tinguished for so many virtues ; and this love 
of the people was to Louisa and Frederic 
William one of their chief sources of hap- 
piness. 

The king and queen were often seen walking 
together without any attendants, save the peo- 
ple, who followed them with acclamations. At 
one time, when they were visiting the Christ- 
mas fair, they made purchases at the different 
booths. A woman, who was buying something, 
stopped on perceiving them, and stepped back. 
Louisa bade her remain, and asked kindly after 
her family. The woman told her that she had 
a son about the age of the crown prince. The 



THE YOUNG QUEEN. 83 

queen immediately purchased a beautiful toy, 
and, presenting it" to her, said : 

"Give this to your 'crown prince' in the 
name of miner 

We have a striking example of Louisa's 
kindness to a laborer, A count and the court- 
shoemaker were announced at the same time. 
She gave audience to the latter first, saying : 

" The mechanic's time is far more valuable 
than the count's, and if I kept him waiting an ' 
hour or two, where would be the honor of being' 
court-shoemaker ? The tradesman must be at- / 
tended to first, and the count must wait." 

Once, at a court entertainment, the queen 
observed that a beautiful lady was avoided by ■• 
the nobility because she was not of noble 
blood, whereupon she asked the king to show 
her particular attention, which he did. 

On another occasion, at a presentation in 
Magdeburg, an officer's wife was asked con- 
cerning her birth, whether she was of noble 
family. When the lady, deeply embarrassed, 



«4 Q. UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

answered that she was of " common origin," 
the queen was moved to pity at seeing her 
great confusion, amid the contemptuous smiles 
of those standing near. Louisa leaned toward 
her kindly, and spoke, in a tone loud enough 
for all to hear, of her worthy family and really 
deserving ancestry ; " but," continued she, 
" goodness is not confined to any station in 
life ; it blossoms amid the low as well as the 
high. Inner personal goodness, after all, is the 
only true nobleness." 

At a grand Church festival at Potsdam a 
poor woman inadvertently took the queen's 
seat, and was turned out in a very rude man- 
ner by the master of ceremonies. Louisa was 
very much annoyed at his harshness, and 
would not be satisfied until she had seen and 
made recompense to the woman. 

One fine spring morning, as the queen was 
taking a walk in the castle garden at Potsdam, 
she saw a sick man sitting on a bench. As he 
seemed, from his clothing, to be poor, she 



THE YOUNG QUEEN. 85 

ordered her servants to give him ten dollars. 
The man was the master-mason of Potsdam, 
who had been very ill, which accounted for his 
poverty-stricken appearance. Not being in 
want, he honorably decHned the gift. When 
the queen heard of this she returned, for she 
had gone some distance. Fearing she had of- 
fended the man by her proffered alms, she 
said : 

" I hope that you will pardon me if I have 
given offense. I did not intend it." 

She then asked him if he would allow her 
cook to superintend his food until he was well 
again. He complied with her wish, and went 
each day, for several weeks, at midday to the 
royal palace, where the most nourishing food 
was prepared for him. 

The never-ceasing benevolence of the queen 
caused often her quarterly allowance of money 
to be exhausted. She once asked the treasurer, 
Wolter, who was a very accurate and trust- 
worthy man, to let her have money in advance. 



86 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

He told her that he could not do that ; his duty 
was to pay all at the proper time ; and until 
it was due he dare not advance any thing, the 
king would not allow it. " Besides, your maj- 
esty," continued he, "if I were to do so, you 
would still run short." 

" Good Wolter," the queen replied, " I love 
my children, and the term * child of the coun- 
try ' has a sweet sound to me ; nothing gives 
me so much joy as, by the side of my husband, 
the * father of the country,' to be * mother of the 
country.' I must and dare not fail in my duty, 
and, above all, I must help where there is 
need." 

" All right," answered Wolter, " I'll tell that 
to the king." 

"But not so," replied Louisa, "as to offend 
him." 

The king, who was of like mind, was not 
offended. 

Soon after Louisa found her money-box full, 
and she asked. 



THE YOUNG QUEEN. 8/ 

" What angel has filled that box again ? " 

" The angels are legion," replied the king. 

It is worthy of remark that the king re- 
mained plain and simple in his habits. On 
the day of his ascension to the throne a 
servant threw open for him both of the folding 
doors. 

" Have I then become stout so suddenly," 
asked he, " that one door is too narrow for 
me } " 

And when the cook had supplied the royal 
table with two more dishes than were formerly 
placed on his table as crown prince, he re- 
marked that they seemed to think, since yes- 
terday, he had become possessed of a greater 
appetite. 

On the occasion of the first banquet after 
his coronation, the king told the court-mar- 
shal, who stood behind his chair, to sit down 
to table. 

" I dare not," was the answer, " until your 
majesty has taken your first glass." 



55 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

Such had been the command of the cere- 
mony-loving Louis XIV. 

" Is any particular drink required by eti- 
quette ? " asked Frederic William. 

" So far as I know, no, sire," was the 
reply. 

Then the king took a glass of water, and 
drank, saying : 

"Now you can take your seat, for I have 
drank." 

The king, in the commencement of his reign, 
could be approached by all. Once a fisher- 
woman came from Schwedt, and related to him 
that Prince Louis, shortly before his death, had 
promised her husband six thousand thalers to 
build a new house. Fifteen hundred thalers 
had already been paid, but now both the prince 
and her husband were dead, and she was a 
poor, helpless widow. She told him that she 
had heard that Prince Louis' brother had be- 
come king, and that was the reason she came 
to Berlin. She concluded by saying : 



THE YOUNG QUEEN. 89 

"Your brother was a generous man, and I 
hope you will be, and let me have my house 
built." 

The king gave directions that the money 
should be paid to her in Schwedt. 

The thankful woman left, but soon returned 
to Berlin, bringing to the king a small cask of 
lampreys. 

" Now, I see," she said, " that you are as 
good and liberal a man as your brother, and I 
have brought you something for your kind- 
ness." 

The king took the present, and gave it to 
Louisa. 

The following pleasing incident is another 
evidence of Louisa's unwearied efforts to make 
others happy. There was an old man living in 
Darmstadt, who, in former years, had been the 
teacher of Louisa. He had been very much 
attached to his pupil, and she to him. As he 
was continually hearing of her goodness and 
benevolence, and of her thoughtfulness for poor 



90 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

as well as rich, he conceived a greater desire 
than ever to see her once more. This thought 
occupied his mind continually, until at last he 
determined to make the journey to Berlin, In 
those days a journey to Berlin from Darmstadt 
was no light undertaking, especially to an old 
man. The old teacher, being in comfortable 
circumstances, could afford the expense of the 
journey ; he therefore packed* his trunk, and 
started by the post-coach for Berlin. As he 
journeyed on, day after day and night after 
night, he wondered whether the queen would 
recognize him, and how she would receive him. 
At length he arrived at his destination, and 
took rooms at a plain hotel. 

The following morning he put on his best 
coat, and went up to the palace. He passed 
the sentinel, and entered the great hall. La- 
dies and gentlemen in elegant costumes passed 
by him without a word, or even a look. He 
felt embarrassed and frightened, but still went 
on. He finally came to the ante-chamber, and 



THE YOUNG QUEEN. 9 1 

there saw an attendant, and asked him if he 
would please announce him to the queen. The 
attendant inquired what name he should give. 

He was requested to say, " An old acquaint- 
ance from Darmstadt wishes to speak to her 
majesty." The man in waiting soon returned, 
and ushered the old teacher into the presence 
of the queen. 

She was sitting on a sofa, but no sooner saw 
him than she recognized him, and stepped to- 
ward him, calling him by name. The old man 
was deeply moved, and the queen's eyes were 
also suffused with tears as ^he-^ressed his 
hand. He then told her how often he had 
heard her spoken of as being a good queen, 
and kind and friendly to the poor, and for that 
reason he wished to see his old pupil once 
more before he died. She replied that she had 
many times thought of him, and was glad to 
have an opportunity of thanking him for the 
patience he had shown in instructing her, and 
of rewarding him for his labor. He quickly 



92 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

said that he wished no reward, as he was in 
very comfortable circumstances. 

The king now entered, and the queen intro- 
duced her former teacher to him, Frederic 
Wilham was pleased to see him, and kindly 
took his hand. While they were conversing 
dinner was announced, and the king invited 
the worthy teacher to dine with him. The old 
teacher was terrified at this, and excused him- 
self. They urged him, however, until he con- 
sented. His heart throbbed as he entered the 
stately dining-room, and was seated at the royal 
table, where he saw such dazzling and expen- 
sive service. The guests looked at the plainly- 
dressed, gray-headed old man in mute astonish- 
ment ; but when the queen introduced him as 
her former teacher, then all had a kindly word 
for him. It was with great difficulty that the 
old man prevented the tears from running down 
his cheeks. Louisa, to relieve him of embar- 
rassment, repeated amusing anecdotes of her 
youth, causing every one to laugh, and at the 




Louisa and her Old Teacher 



THE YOUNG QUEEN. 95 

same time drawing her old friend into conver- 
sation. He afterward spoke of this hour spent 
at the table of the king as one of the happiest 
in his life. 

After dinner he was escorted back to the 
queen's apartments, where Louisa, in the pres- 
ence of her husband, presented him with a 
miniature portrait of herself, set with dia- 
monds, at the same time saying that, if he 
would not accept money, he must accept from 
her a souvenir of his visit to Berlin. The king 
also said to him that so long as he remained in 
the city he should consider him as his guest, 
and that he had ordered an adjutant to be in 
attendance upon him, and show him all the 
objects of interest in Berhn. The next morn- 
ing a carriage was at the door ready to conduct 
him about the city. 

During his stay he saw every thing of in^ 
terest in and around Berlin. The best of 
every thing was served to him at the hotel 
table, and when he complained of such lux- 



90 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

uries, he was told that it was at the king's 
command. 

When the time for his departure came, and he 
wished to settle his account with the landlord of 
the hotel, he was not allowed to pay any thing, 
as he had been the king's guest. An extra 
coach was provided at the royal command to 
convey him to Darmstadt. He visited the pal- 
ace once more to bid the king and queen fare- 
well, and to thank them for their kindness. 
Happy, indeed, was that old man as he jour- 
neyed home in the remembrance of that de- 
lightful and never-to-be-forgotten visit, and in 
the possession of that costly token of the 
queen's gratitude. 

The following is a striking illustration of 
Louisa's thoughtfulness in behalf of a suffering 
prisoner : 

In a cleft of a mountain range in Upper 
Silesia, through which the wild and raging 
river Neisse forces its passage down to the 
Oder, stands the Prussian fortjress of Glatz, a 



THE YOUNG QUEEN. 97 

natural fastness, begirt by mountain peaks like 
walls, and fortified yet more by human skill. 
The valley itself is shut out from the rest of 
the world, and inclosed by the massive walls 
and gratings of the castle. Woe to the man 
imprisoned in Glatz ! Every thing calls out 
to him, " No hope remains for thee ! no 
hope ! " 

Here, in the early part of this century, lay 
the Count of M., hopelessly shut in behind 
bolts and bars. By treason against the realm, 
and especially by personal violence offered to 
Frederick William III. of Prussia, he had 
invoked the anger of that monarch on his 
head, and was condemned to solitary imprison- 
ment for life. 

For a whole year he lay in his frightful, lonely 
cell without one ray of hope, either as to this 
world or the next, — for he was a skeptic. They 
had left him only one book — a Bible — and this 
for a long time he would not read ; or, if forced 
to take it up to relieve his weariness, it was 



98 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

only read with a feeling of hatred toward the 
God it reveals. 

But sore affliction, that has brought back to 
the Good Shepherd many a wandering sheep, 
had a good effect upon the Count of M. The 
more he read his Bible the more he felt its in- 
fluence on his forlorn and hopeless heart. 

On a rough and stormy November night, 
when the mountain gales howled round the 
fortress, the rain fell in torrents, and the 
swollen and foaming Neisse rushed furiously 
down the valley, the count lay sleepless on his 
cot. The tempest in his breast was as fearful 
as that without. His whole past life arose be- 
fore him ; he was convicted of his manifold 
short-comings and sins ; he felt that the source 
of all his misery lay in his forsaking God. For 
the first time in his life his heart was tender, 
and his eyes wept tears of genuine repentance. 
He rose from his cot, opened his Bible, and his 
eyes fell on Psalm 1, 1 5 : " Call upon me in the 
day of trouble : I will deliver thee, and thou 



THE YOUNG QUEEN. 99 

shalt glorify me." This word of God reached 
the depths of his soul. He fell on his knees for 
the first time since he was a child, and cried to 
God for mercy ; and that gracious and compas- 
sionate God, who turns not away from the first 
impulse of faith toward him, heard the cry 
of this sufferer in the dungeon, and gave him a 
twofold deliverance. 

The same night, in his palace at Berlin, 
King Frederic William III. lay sleepless in 
bed. Severe bodily pains tormented him, and 
in his utter exhaustion he begged of God to 
grant him a single hour of refreshing sleep. 
The favor was granted ; and when he woke 
again he said to his wife, the good-hearted 
Louisa : 

" God has looked upon me very graciously, 
and I may well be thankful to him. Who in 
my kingdom has wronged me most } I will 
forgive him." 

" The Count of M,," replied Louisa, " who is 
imprisoned in Glatz." 



1 00 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

" You are right," said the sick king ; " let 
him be pardoned." 

Day had not dawned over Berhn ere a cou- 
rier was dispatched to Silesia, bearing to the 
prisoner in Glatz pardon and release. 





VIII. 

N the year following the ascension to 
the throne, the queen accompanied her 
husband on a visit he made to several 
of his provinces. This journey awakened much 
love among the people toward their new king 
and queen, and especially did the latter win 
even a still higher place in their hearts. There 
are a few old people still living who remember 
this visit, and recall the impression the queen 
made ; but more than all can they remember 
the continuous festivity which that visit made. 

Before setting out on this journey the king 
gave directions that no show or display should 
be made in their homes, saying, in his pithy 
manner, that the love of his people did him 
more honor than any triumphal arches, cere- 



102 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

monious receptions, and poetical effusions could 
do. Notwithstanding the king's orders, the 
royal pair every-where met with demonstra- 
tions of love and joy. 

The journey was first through the provinces 
of Pomerania and Prussia, to Konigsberg. At 
Stargard, in Pomerania, where a vast multitude 
had assembled to welcome them, nineteen little 
girls went in advance and strewed their way 
with flowers. Louisa conversed like a mother 
with the children, whereupon they gained con- 
fidence in her, and told her that there would 
have been twenty of them had not one been 
sent home,' "because she was not pretty enough^ 

" The poor child," said the queen, " she has 
rejoiced over our coming, and now she must 
weep bitterly at home." 

She sent immediately for this child, and 
when she came the queen singled her out as 
the object of her particular attention. 

In the village of Kaslin a crowd of peasants 
surrounded the carriage, and the chief man of 



LOUISA AND HER SUBJECTS. 



103 



the place stepped up and asked in German if 
the queen would alight for a moment, as the 
people wanted to give her a "treat!' She ac- 
cordingly descended from the carriage and 
entered a cottage, where she found an omelet 
set out on the table for her. She sat down and 




partook of this simple meal, while the plain but 
hearty people stood in the room and gazed at 
her with joy and reverence. 

From Kaslin Louisa proceeded to Danzig. 
In Klemensfahr, at the crossing of the Nogat, 
the merchants of Elbing had erected a canopy, 
under which the royal pair were to take a rural 



1 04 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

meal. The king had gone by way of Marien- 
burg, that he might inspect the troops. In 
consequence of this detour he was delayed. It 
had already become late, and Louisa was asked 
if she would have the meal served. She an- 
swered that she could not eat until her husband 
arrived ; it was " the duty of a wife to wait for 
her husband." 

At Elbing a countryman, kneeling to the 
king, presented to him a petition. Although 
it had been forbidden to present petitions or 
addresses on this journey, the king did not 
strictly keep his command, but received several 
of them, especially from the country people. 
When this peasant, with his petition, pros- 
trated himself before the king, the latter took 
it, but said : 

" A man should kneel before no man." 

Their reception in Konigsberg on the 3d of 

June was one of unusual splendor. During 

their stay there they occupied the magnificent 

castle. Deputations waited on them to present 



LOUISA AND HER SUBJECTS. IO5 

the united good wishes of the citizens, and the 
replies which the queen made to deputations 
went from mouth to mouth, and took root in all 
hearts. Daily large crowds assembled before 
the castle, that they might impress their royal 
guests with the love that filled their hearts. 
Louisa often appeared at the castle windows 
and greeted the multitude. 

On the journey to Domnau, whither the king 
did not accompany the queen, Louisa was provi- 
dentially saved from an accident. Through the 
carelessness of the coachman, the royal car- 
riage was precipitated into a deep ravine and 
overturned. When the lady-in-waiting com- 
menced scolding the frightened coachman for 
his want of foresight, Louisa quieted her by 
saying : 

" Never mind ; thank God that it is not 
worse ; the people are more terrified than we 
are hurt." 

On the 13th of June the king and queen 
entered Warsaw, the capital of the newly-ac- 



I06 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

quired province of Poland, the siege of which 
Frederic William, as crown prince, had con- 
ducted a few years before. On the present 
occasion he had no military escort, and refused 
one, with the following reply : 

" I am accustomed when traveling in my old 
provinces to be escorted only by the love of my 
people, and I am far from believing that I shall 
need any other escort in my new provinces." 

An American authoress, Mrs. Julia M. Olin, 
has beautifully described their journey through 
Silesia in the following language : 

" Cottages were gay with May blossoms, and 
roads strewn with rushes ; citizens, with wav- 
ing banners, lined the streets, and triumphal 
arches gave them welcome to Silesia. Groups 
of husbandmen sang Pohsh songs, burghers' 
daughters scattered roses before the royal 
guests ; while the thunder of cannon, the ring- 
ing of bells, the flourish of trumpets and drums, 
gave loud expression to the general joy, which, 
at night, spoke to the eye in gardens, shops. 



LOUISA AND HER SUBJECTS. lO/ 

and docks brilliantly illuminated. Strains of 
national music floated from wind instruments, 
or were warbled by peasant girls ; rustic tem- 
ples were erected in honor of the beautiful 
queen, whose path was literally one of roses, 
with such profusion were they strewn on the 
way by the company of gardeners, male and 
female, in their pecuhar costume, gracefully 
adorned with flowers. 

" The scene at the bridge of the Oder was 
one long to be remembered : the dark stream ; 
the green island ; the ramparts ; the Jesuits' 
College and Observatory ; the Elizabeth's Tow- 
er ; the living mass of people ; the balconies on 
the bridge, in which stood fifty burghers' 
daughters attired in white ; the German music 
wafted from the tower above, and the Turkish 
from the street below ; the students ranged in 
double file welcoming their queen with a na- 
tional air — all this composed a picture of rare 
beauty." * 

* " The Perfect Light," pp. 94-96. 



I o8 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

In the month of August, 1800, the queen 
accompanied the king on another journey to 
this province, where he went to review his 
troops. The journey through this wild roman- 
tic country afforded her the purest pleasure. 
Some of these pictures must have ever re- 
mained vividly painted on her memory. The 
ascent of the Schneekoppe, the highest mount- 
ain in Germany, with its revelations of grand- 
eur and beauty, awakened in Louisa the 
deepest emotions — " too much," she said, " for 
the heart to bear at once." The king uncov- 
ered his head in profound reverence, while the 
queen, with hands folded in prayer, stood si- 
lently by his side, feeling that this moment was 
one of the most blessed and solemn of her life, 
that she was elevated above this earth, and 
nearer to her God. We are reminded of Pe- 
trarch's meditations on the summit of Mount 
Venoux. 

" If," thought he, " I have undergone so 
much labor in climbing this mountain that my 



LOUISA AND HER SUBJECTS. 109 

body might be nearer to heaven, what ought I 
to do that my soul may be received into im- 
mortal regions ? " 

The queen's pause of devotion was inter- 
rupted by shouts of loyalty from the crowd on 
the mountain side, and the thunder of the can- 
non on the adjacent heights, awakening pro- 
longed echoes as they died away. 

Not less impressive were the subterranean 
views which met the eye of the queen, three days 
afterward, in the mining works at Waldenburg. 
A boat conveyed them into the dark cavern 
out of which the stream issues, and which now 
glowed with an unwonted illumination. At 
the distance of every ten fathoms wax lights 
threw their radiance across the waters, and 
from a boat stationed seventy fathoms from the 
mouth of the cavern, mountain music gave to 
this weird and unearthly scene a still more im- 
pressive character. It was a picture for an 
artist — the wild groups of miners, the strongly- 
contrasted light and shadows, the beautiful 



no QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

queen, in the dress and hat of a miner, that had 
been prepared for her, formed a picture to the 
dullest imagination. 

It was never forgotten by those miners, and 
must have thrown a ray of light into their dark- 
ness, a proof of which was given in simple, 
earnest phrase by one of them, when, after a 
lapse of twenty-one years, Prince Radzivill, 
who made a similar excursion, asked if any of 
the miners present witnessed the royal visit on 
the 19th of August, 1800. 

An honest old miner replied, in his straight- 
forward homely dialect : 

" Yes, above half of us are alive who had 
that honor ; three of us are with you now. I 
sat at the rudder, and I could see the queen's 
sweet face well by the light of the lamps. In 
all my life I never saw such a face. She 
looked grand, as a queen should look ; but she 
was gentle as a child, and had the sweetest 
smile I ever saw, just for all the world like my 
dead, blessed mother. As the psalm began. 



LOUISA AND HER SUBJECTS. II! 

'Praise the Lord, the mighty King of all the 
earth,' the queen took the king's hand and said 
softly, * My favorite psalm ; this is heavenly ;' 
and then turning to me, said, ' More slowly, my 
good steersman.* The king and queen made 
us all presents, but she gave me with her own 
hand a little paper with two new Holland ducats, 
and I gave them to my wife, and she wears them 
for a necklace when she goes to church, or to 
take the sacrament, for what that queen had 
touched was holy. She was a woman indeed. 
Why did the good God take her away from us 
so soon .'' She did every thing kindly, and 
loved us all. She told us that she took her 
mining dress with her to remind her of us." 

The tears that rolled down his wrinkled 
cheeks, and stood in the eyes of the others who 
remembered the queen's visit, testified to the 
depth of the feeling she had awakened in their 
hearts. 

A strikingly contrasted scene awaited her 
the same day. A picturesque and knightly 



112 Q UEEN LO VISA OF PR USSI4. 

residence had been built by the Count von 
Hockberg on the site of the ruins Vorstinberg, 
formerly a fortress of the Middle Ages. The 
new building on its rocky, wooded heights was 
strictly in harmony with the feudal age, with 
its tilting yard, moat, draw-bridge and portcul- 
lis. On the watch-tower of the castle waved 
the banner of Hockberg, guarded by a mailed 
warrior. The trumpeters on the watch-tower 
announced the arrival of strangers. An alarm 
was sounded, the draw-bridge lowered, and the 
heralds rode out of the gate to inquire the style 
and title of the guests, who had ascended a bal- 
cony opposite the castle gate. On its being 
announced that it was their majesties of Prus- 
sia, the standard-bearer, accompanied by the 
knights, requested permission to express their 
sense of the honor done them by this royal 
visit by a tournament. The troops of knights, 
preceded by the standard-bearers, filed in sol- 
emn order, and when the banners were planted 
the tilting matches began, a.nd the victors re- 



LOUISA AND HER SUBJECTS. II3 

ceived their rewards — two medals of gold, and 
two of silver — from the hands of the queen, 
than whom a fairer never awarded the meed of 
knightly prowess. 

Through an avenue of knights, with uplifted 
lances, the king and queen crossed the bridge 
and entered the castle, which in the even- 
ing was brilliantly illuminated. The window 
through which the queen looked upon the 
enchanting prospect below is still called " Lou- 
isa's view." 

From this place Louisa journeyed homeward 
to Berlin, and on the 29th of June arrived at 
Charlottenburg. After the formal reception 
the king joined her. 

In the following year they visited the west- 
ern provinces of Westphalia and the present 
independent dukedoms of Anspach and Bay- 
reuth, which at that time still belonged to 
Prussia. On this journey Louisa was permit- 
ted to see her nearest relatives at Frankfort- 
on-the-Main, Darmstadt, Hildburghausen, and 



114 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

the beautiful countries bordering on the Rhine 
and the Main, where she had passed her child- 
hood. 

But amid all this joyfulness, festivity, and 
beauty, there was much to fill a thoughtful 
Christian heart with sorrow. Unbelief, the 
result of the French false enlightenment, had 
nearly every-where taken root. While some 
were satisfied with a dry, unfruitful immorality, 
others had fallen back into an idolatry as gross 
as that of their ancestry. 

When in Konigsberg, and out enjoying a 
pleasure sail, the queen was handed by the 
throng a myrtle crown, on which was a poem, 
which read as follows : 

"With a gay surrounding 

Q'er the gleaming tide ! • 
Comes a shallop bounding 

With a god's fair bride ! 

" Ah ! it Cometh toward me ; 

See what ne'er I saw ! 
Imploringly I bend the knee : 

Venus Amathusia ! " 



LOUISA AND HER SUBJECTS. 115 

Venus, it will be remembered, was the god- 
dess of love in the pantheons of Greece and 
Rome ; and the epithet " Amathusia " was ap- 
plied to her from Amathiis, a city of very great 
antiquity, situated on the southern side of the 
Island of Cyprus, and dedicated to the worship 
of Venus. 

At Wartenberg, in Posen, the burgesses had 
a temple erected, and decked with firs and 
wreaths of flowers. In the midst of it there 
was an altar with a flame rising from it, and 
around this eight young women, dressed in 
white, attended as high priestesses. By the 
side of the temple stood the Catholic and 
Protestant clergy. When the carriage of the 
queen arrived she was received with music, 
and six of the priestesses stepped out of the 
temple toward the carriage, while the two who 
remained behind strewed incense on the flame. 
In Breslau, Brandenburg-on-the-Havel, and 
Menel, where the Emperor Alexander of 
Russia and Frederic William III. met, there 



Il6 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

were inscriptions which read : " The allied 
gods." It is pleasing to know that Frederic 
William and Louisa were deeply grieved at this 
ridiculous idolatry. 

A period so arrogant, and yet so false, could 
not but bring judgment upon itself. It was 
necessary that it be purified with fire. It 
makes one sad, however, to think that the 
queen must also, who was as a shining light in 
the darkness of the times, be purified in the 
crucible of affliction, that her faith and devo- 
tion might be still more strengthened. 





IX. 

^ujn|emacy of !lf apoleon. 
^APOLEON I., Emperor of the French, 



had already commenced his victorious 
career. He had placed members of 
his own family on many of the thrones of Eu- 
rope, and his ambition aimed at conquering the 
whole continent. He wrote in the year 1805 
to his brothers in Naples and Holland "that 
Prussia and her allies should be crushed, and 
that this time he intended to finish up Europe." 
At this time Napoleon made deceiving offers 
of friendship to the King of Prussia, for he 
feared, with all his boldness, the Prussian 
power. When, in 1805, Russia, England, Aus- 
tria, and Sweden invited the King of Prussia to 
join them in an alliance to overthrow the Em- 
peror of the French, he would not, but remained 



1 1 8 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

neutral, wishing to hold out to his people the 
hope of peace. By this means Napoleon was 
enabled to evade the threatening danger, and 
Frederic WilHam, in the meantime, prepared to 
defend his neutrality. 

The passage of the French troops through 
Anspach, a part of Prussia which was neutral 
ground, was the first sign of the violation of the 
neutrality. Napoleon said it was essential for 
him to gain the necessary victory, and that he 
did not intend to lose it by any false hesitancy. 
And, indeed, he was by this act enabled to fall 
upon the Austrians and defeat them before 
they were prepared for him. 

General Mack, the Austrian commander-in- 
chief, after losing several battles, was obliged 
to seclude himself in Ulm, and then surrender. 

Such a breach of national law naturally 
roused the indignation of all who loved their 
country's honor. Queen Louisa was not a 
politician, but she was thoroughly German, and 
every insult offered to her country was branded 



SUP REM A CY OF NAPOLEON. 1 1 9 

upon her heart. About this time the tenth 
anniversary of her eldest son's birthday was 
celebrated at quiet Paretz. The young crown 
prince received from his father a present of a 
military hat and sword. When he appeared 
before his mother, for the first time, in the new 
uniform, she said to him with the deepest 
emotion : 

" I hope, my son, when you use this dress, 
your first thought will be to avenge the wrongs 
of your unhappy countrymen." 

Ten days after this the Emperor of Russia 
came to Berlin, and he and the King and 
Queen of Prussia went together to Potsdam. 
Alexander warned Frederic William of the 
danger that he was exposing himself to in 
remaining neutral. 

" Prussia," he said, " cannot separate herself 
from the fate of Germany, from the affairs of 
Europe ; she does not make less certain, by 
her inactivity, the coming victory ; for a mo- 
ment she would be spared, in order the more 



1 20 Q UEEN L O VISA OF PR US SI A . 

easily to be annihilated, when Austria and 
Russia had been settled ; but she would not 
the less surely become a prey to Napoleon's 
ambition." 

Before leaving Berlin the Russian emperor 
expressed a desire to visit the tomb of Fred- 
eric the Great. The king immediately gave 
orders to have the royal vault in the garrison 
church illuminated, for it is there that the re- 
mains of the great king rest, and by his side 
lie the bones of his father, Frederic William I. 
Alexander, accompanied by the royal family, at 
midnight, went to the garrison church, and 
down into the illuminated vault. Overcome 
with emotion, he bowed down and kissed the 
coffin of Frederic the Great, and then reaching 
his hand over it to Frederic William, he vowed 
eternal friendship to him and the royal house, 
and bound himself by an oath to fight for the 
freedom of Germany. The queen witnessed 
this scene, and consecrated it with her tears. 

At Potsdam a treaty was made, by which 



SUPREMACY OF NAPOLEON. 121 

Prussia, in common with Austria and Russia, 
was to offer terms of peace to the emperor of 
the French, and if he did not accept them, war 
would be declared on the 15 th of December. 
Haugewitz, the minister,' whom Frederic Will- 
iam had charged with the task of communicating 
with Napoleon, allowed the latter to influence 
him to defer the interview until he had gained 
a great victory over the Austrians, and then, 
contrary to his instructions, concluded a treaty, 
offensive and defensive, with the emperor. 
This took place on the 15 th of December, the 
day that war was to have been declared. 

Nor was this the only blind and treasonable 
act committed by the Prussian embassadors or 
ministers during those unhappy days. The 
citizens of Berlin were at that time divided 
into two classes. The one, the war party, 
wished Prussia to make common cause with 
Austria, Germany, and Europe, and draw the 
sword against France. The other, the peace 
party, or, more properly, the French party, who 



122 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

saw safety for Prussia only in a close alliance 
with France, To the latter party, unfortunate- 
ly, not only belonged well-meaning men, but 
unprincipled ones, who were in secret connec- 
tion with Napoleon, and kept him advised of 
the secrets of the Prussian government. 

Louisa, who was not blind to the danger of 
Germany and the Prussian throne, was deeply 
afflicted. She had suffered much in health 
since the winter of 1805, and the sorrow con- 
sequent on losing her youngest son, aged six- 
teen months, enfeebled her still more. In 
heaviness of heart she went with the king to 
Potsdam to spend the spring-time. In June 
her physicians advised her to try the baths at 
Pyrmont. There she was greatly rejoiced to 
meet her father and eldest brother. After re- 
maining six weeks at Pyrmont her health 
became much improved, and she regained her 
wonted spirits. She returned to Charlotten- 
burg, that she might celebrate the king's birth- 
day in their own home. 



SUPREMACY OF NAPOLEON. 1 23 

What was her surprise to learn, on arriving 
there, that war had been declared against Na- 
poleon, and that the army was ready to march 
immediately. Although Louisa scarcely knew 
what war was before it was determined upon, 
she was accused afterward by Napoleon of 
being the cause of it, having influenced the 
king. It was what she was, not what she did, 
that made her name a watchword for the ene- 
mies of Napoleon. It was impossible for him, 
with his tyrannically cold nature, to comprehend 
the deeper feelings of the heart ; still he discov- 
ered that Queen Louisa was a great power, a 
host in herself, which he could not otherwise 
understand than by assigning to her a special 
political activity, and on this account he did 
not fail to calumniate her. 

Although she took a deep interest in the fate 
of the fatherland, she was never known to take 
part in expressions of hate toward Napoleon. 
She was too noble for that, and Frederic 
William was of the same mind, notwithstanding 



124 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

Napoleon's treachery. On a subsequent occa- 
sion, when a court lady manifested great dis- 
pleasure at an honorable mention of Napoleon's 
name, Louisa made the following reply to her 
remark : 

" We cannot overcome this affliction by hate. 
Resignation alone can mitigate it. We should 
think of Him who prayed for those who perse- 
cuted him." 

This was her feeling, too, before the war. 
She was a lover of peace, and could not with- 
hold her tears when she heard of the desola- 
tions of war in foreign lands. 

In the middle of September Louisa accom- 
panied her husband to Nauenburg, in the 
vicinity of the army. Although apparently full 
of courage and hope she felt the whole weight 
of the conflict, and was without confidence 
in the generalship of the Duke of Brunswick. 
Notwithstanding she saw the danger which 
threatened her country, her husband, her chil- 
dren, and all she loved, she called upon all to 



S UP REM A C V OF NAP OLE ON. 1 2 5 

scorn it, and share with them whatever misfor- 
tune might be the result. On the 13th of 
October the queen appeared at Weimar before 
the departing troops, and inspired them by 
her courage and presence. 

The first battle had been fought on the loth 
of October, and this battle was soon followed 
by the two fatal onsets of Jena and Auerstadt 
on the 14th of October. These heavy defeats 
of the Prussians almost destroyed the hope 
which had been entertained for the welfare of 
the fatherland. The cannons were already 
thundering on the field of Jena when the queen 
unwillingly, at the urgent request of General 
Riichel, left the head-quarters in order to return 
to Berlin. She had scarcely reached the gate 
of the capital when the news of the unparal- 
leled defeat of the Prussian army reached her, 
and that Napoleon's soldiers were advancing 
into the open country. She immediately fled 
from Berlin with her children, and directed her 
steps eastward to Stettin. 



1 26 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A. 

In these first days of flight and treachery, 
when one misfortune after another followed in 
quick succession, the queen, in her woe, ad- 
dressed these memorable words to her son, the 
eldest prince, which express the deepest mater- 
nal and national grief: 

" You see me in tears ; I weep for the decline 
of my family, and the loss of that glory with 
which our ancestors and their generals have 
crowned the house of Hohenzollern, and whose 
brightness has spread a luster over all who 
obeyed that scepter. Oh, how dimmed is now 
that brightness ! Fortune destroys in a day an 
edifice which for two hundred years great men 
have been engaged in building. There is no 
Prussian state, no Prussian army, and no Prus- 
sian national glory any more ; it is vanished, 
like the cloud which hid from us the horror 
and danger of the fields of Jena and Auerstadt ! 
Ah, my son, you are of an age to understand 
the great events by which we are now visited ! 
In the future, when your father and mother are ' 



SUPREMACY OF NAPOLEON. 12/ 

no more, call to mind this unhappy hour ; weep 
tears to my remembrance, as I weep now, at 
this fearful time, for the downfall of our father- 
land. But do not be satisfied with tears alone 
— act ! Develop your powers ! Perhaps the 
spirit of the guardian angel of Prussia will 
descend upon you. Deliver your country from 
the shame, reproach, and humiliation under 
which it groans. Try to regain the now tar- 
nished glory of our forefathers, as your great- 
grandfather, the Great Elector, once at Fehr- 
bellin revenged on the Swedes the defeat and 
disgrace of his father. Do not become a prey, 
my son, to the degeneracy of these times, but 
be a man, and aspire to the glory of becoming 
a great general and a hero ! If you have this 
ambition you will be worthy of being called 
a prince and grandson of the great Frederic. 
If, however, you fail to lift up this fallen mon- 
archy, seek death as Louis Ferdinand sought 
it ! " 

The king and queen met at Kiistrin, and 



128 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

endured together the heart-rending news of the 
surrender of fortifications and troops, as they 
came in quick succession. While in Ortels- 
burg, on the 5 th of December, 1806, the queen 
wrote the following lines of the poet Goethe in 
her diary, which we give in English : 

" Who never ate in tears his bread, 
Who never, through the livelong night, 

Sat weeping on his anxious bed, 

Knows not the great, the heavenly Might." * 

We give here an incident, which we heard 
related by a German lady, who is perfectly 
familiar with the life and history of the queen. 

When driven by the French from the palace 
in Berlin the queen sought refuge one night 
with her suite in a humble peasant's hut, and 
while there, wrote with the diamond ring that 

* " Wer nie sein Brod mit Thranen asz, 
Wer nicht die kummei-voUen Nachte 
Auf seinem Bette weinend sass, 

Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Machte." 
— Goethe's Smnmtliche Werke. Cotta's ed. Stuttgart, 
1869. Vol. I, p. 249. 



SUP RE MA CY OF NAPOLEON. 1 29 

she wore upon her finger upon a pane of glass 
in the window this same verse of the poet 
Goethe, which, in her deep sorrows, had be- 
come to her a great favorite. The cottage is 
said to be still standing, and the lines perfectly- 
visible on the glass. 

She did not long continue in this state of 
grief, but dried her tears, and went to the 
piano and played and sang one of Paul Ger- 
hardt's impressive hymns, which has been so 
beautifully rendered into English by John 
Wesley : — 

Commit thou all thy griefs 

And ways into His hands, — 
To his sure trust and tender care 

Who earth and heaven commands ; 
Who points the clouds their course, 

Whom winds and seas obey : 
He shall direct thy wandering feet, — 

He shall prepare thy way. 

Thou on the Lord rely, 

So, safe, shalt thou go on ; 
Fix on his work thy steadfast eye, 

So shall thy work be done. 



130 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

No profit canst thou gain 

By self-consuming care ; 
To him commend thy cause — ^his ear 

Attends the softest prayer. 

In the midst of her greatest anguish she 
did not fully lose her courage and confidence. 
While others, who had at first been so san- 
guine of success, and who had now lost all 
sense of honor, and even fidelity, and advised 
submission to the conqueror, she advised firm 
resistance. " Only determined resistance can 
save us," she said. But there were moments 
when the question would rise, whether the 
withstanding of Napoleon were not a defiance 
of fate. 



X. 




^xinshine and ^ha4ow$. 

'ROM Ortelsburg the royal family pro- 
ceeded toward Wehlau, and thence to 
Konigsberg. Every post brought them 
news of fresh disasters. The strongest fortifi- 
cations were given up almost without any re- 
sistance. The news of these overwhelming 
defeats so affected the queen's health that she 
was prostrated with a low, nervous fever, and 
for fourteen days her life was in the greatest 
danger. Before she had fully recovered her 
strength, they were obliged to continue their 
flight to Memel. When the remnant of the 
Prussian army joined the Russians the fighting 
began again, and the queen returned to Ko- 
nigsberg. Here she kept up a correspondence 
with the most superior men, with the court 



132 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

minister, Barowsky, and the Councilor of War, 
SchnefFner. They animated her patriotism, 
and confirmed her Christian faith. She need- 
ed support, for every thing seemed lost. They 
were obliged again to flee to Memel. 

In May, 1807, ^-t the commencement of the 
new campaign, she was full of hope, and wrote 
the following to her father : — 

" Yes, best of fathers, I am convinced that 
all will yet go well, and we shall all be happy 
again. The siege of Danzig goes on finely ; the 
people behave nobly ; they assist in making 
easy the duties of the soldiers ; they give them 
food and wine, and will not listen to surrender. 
They would rather be burned under the ruins 
of their houses than be unfaithful to the king. 
The same is true with reference to Colberg and 
Graudenz. Would that it had been so with all 
the strongholds ! But enough of past evils. 
We will turn our eyes to God, to him who 
orders our fate, and who will not forsake us if 
we will not forsake him. 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS. 133 

" The king, with the Emperor Alexander, is 
with the army, and he will remain there as 
long as the latter does. This unity, proved by 
constancy in misfortune, gives ground for the 
greatest hope. I am convinced that through 
steadfastness, and that only, we shall conquer' 
sooner or later." 

This last hope vanished with the defeat of 
the allied armies at Friedland, on the 14th of 
June. Konigsberg was taken by the French, 
and the queen, who was now in Memel, pre- 
pared to leave the kingdom. At this time she 
wrote again to her father, and we extract from 
her letters the principal passages. 

" Do not think, dear father, that I have given 
way to pusillanimity. There are two things 
which sustain me : the first is the thought that 
we are not the toys of fortune, but are in the 
hands of God, and that his providence guides 
us ; the other is, that we fall honorably. Prus- 
sia will not bear the chains of a slave willingly. • 
The king could not have done otherwise than 



134 Q UEEN L U/SA OF PR US SI A. 

he has done without being untrue to, and a be- 
trayer of, his people. If I leave the kingdom it 
will only be through the urgency of necessity. 
I turn my eyes, however, to Heaven, whence all 
/ good must invariably come, and my firm faith 
/ is that we will not have more to endure than 
/ we can bear. All things come from Thee, 
thou Merciful Father ! My faith does not 
waver, although I can hope no more. To live 
and die truly, and if necessary live upon bread 
and salt, cannot make me unhappy, but I have 
lost all hope. If prosperity should come, no 
one will be happier than I ; but I do not an- 
ticipate it. If further misfortune come, it may 
amaze me for a moment, but it never can cast 
me down entirely, so long as it is not deserved. 
But any wrong on our side would bring me to 
the grave ; I could not survive it, for we are 
placed in a high position." • 

A letter to Madame de Krudener, for whom 
she had the greatest admiration, and who had 
joined her in the days of her deepest grief at 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS. 135 

Konigsberg, testifies to the depth of the 
queen's religious life : 

" I owe a confession to your excellent heart," 
she writes, " and I am convinced that you will 
receive it with tears of joy. You have made 
me better than I was before. Your words of 
truth, our conversations on religion and Chris- 
tianity, have made the deepest impression upon 
my mind. I have entered with deeper earnest- 
ness into the things, the existence and value of 
which I had indeed felt before, but had rather 
imagined than positively known. These con- 
templations had very comforting results for 
me. I came nearer to God ; my faith became 
stronger, and thus, in the midst of misfortune, 
and many injuries and griefs, I have never 
been without comfort, never quite unhappy. 
Add to this the goodness of the God of love, 
who never hardened my heart, but always kept - 
it open to the kindliness and love of my fellow- - 
creatures. That goodness always filled me with 
an impulse to help and be useful to them. 



136 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. j 

" You will understand that I can never be 
quite miserable while I have this source of 
purest joy. With the keen eye of truth I have 
seen the vanity of earthly greatness, and its 
nothingness in comparison with heavenly pos- 
sessions. Yes, I have attained to a repose of 
the soul, and an inward peace, which allow me 
to hope that I may be able to bear all God's 
dispensations, and the sorrows that are sent to 
purify me, with the composure and humility of 
a true Christian. For it is in this light that I 
view all the severe trials which bow us down. 
I have found myself again in the tumult of the 
world. Promise that you will still always tell 
me the whole truth," 

The queen wrote again in September, 1808 : 
" Have you heard that the king has com- 
manded that memorial tablets shall be placed 
in the churches for those who have fought for 
their Fatherland, to the memory of the dead, to 
the honor of the survivors, and for the emula- 
tion of others ? This is another spark from 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS. 137 

which may be kindled the flame from God 
which shall consume the scourge of nations. 
Has it not been lighted in the Tyrol as well as 
in Spain ? 

" ' Freedom upon the mountains.' 

Do not these words, which I now, for the first 
time, understand, sound like a prophecy when 
you look at those mountains, and see what a 
rising there has been at the call of Hofer ! 
What a man this Andreas Hofer is ! A peas- 
ant becomes a general, and what a general he 
makes ! Prayer is his weapon, and God his 
ally. 

" He fights with folded hands, he fights on 
bended knee, and smites with the cherubim's 
flaming sword. And these faithful Swiss, who 
were before familiar to my mind through Pesta- 
lozzi, childlike in spirit — they fight like the Ti- 
tans, rolling masses of rock from the mountains. 
The same is true in Spain. If the times of 
the Maid of Orleans should come again, and if 



138 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

the enemy should be overcome at last, it might 
be by that power by which the French, with 
a maiden at their head, drove the foe from their 
land. Ah, how many times I have read it over 
and over again ! " 

The court-minister, Barowsky, gives us an 
insight into the deep workings of the Holy 
Spirit on her mind. He says : 

" With the feeling and expression of timidity 
she approaches the holy truths of religion, but 
also with an expression of thirst and longing, 
and she receives refreshment from them in all 
their purity. What pleases me the most is 
that all her views, convictions, and endeavors 
are firmly founded on the revealed word of 
God ; this gives her firmness, assurance, co- 
herence, and repose ; and since she honors me 
with her confidence, I endeavor to confirm her 
faith. In her prevailing state of mind she 
sympathizes most particularly with the Psalms ; 
the holy enthusiasm which pervades them is in 
harmony with her beautiful and poetic nature, 



S UN SHINE A ND SHA DOIVS. 139 

and gives an impulse to her pious spirit. The 
grave experiences of her life open to her the 
inmost meanings of the Holy Scriptures, and 
guide her into their full and deep meaning. 
The true old proverb, ' Trouble teaches us to 
mark and understand the Word,' is gloriously- 
illustrated in her, and I am often most agreea- 
bly surprised by her spiritual and intellectual 
remarks, questions, and answers, 

" When I had the honor to wait on her last 
Sunday I found her alone in her sitting-room 
reading the Bible. She rose quickly, and met 
me in the most friendly manner, at once begin- 
ning : ' Now I have thought over and felt the 
preciousness of the 126th psalm, about which 
we were talking. The more I meditate on it, 
and try to grasp its meaning, the more its love- 
liness and sublimity attract me ; and I do not 
know any thing which has such a solemn, be- 
nign, elevating, and comforting effect upon my 
mind as these precious words. The anguish of 
soul which is simply expressed in them is deep, 



I40 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

but tranquil, peaceful, and tender. What it will 
effect, and the fruit which it will bring forth, are 
strikingly explained under the pleasing figure 
of seed-time and harvest. The hope which 
soars above all, and makes all sorrow endura- 
ble, is like the hues of morning, and you hear 
in the distance the triumphal songs of the vic- 
tor rising above the tumult of the waves of 
sorrow. It is pervaded by a spirit of melan- 
choly, but also of victory, of resignation, and 
the most joyful trust ; it is an elegy, but also 
a hymn of praise — a halleluia mingled with 
tears. I look at this psalm as you look at a 
lovely flower on which a dewdrop glistens in 
the morning light, I have read it again and 
again, until it is firmly impressed upon my 
memory.' 

" And then with an expression of holy rev- 
erence, with a low, but firm and clear voice, 
and in a tone of the purest devotion, the queen 
repeated the psalm which was engraven on her 
mind, occasionally altering it to adapt it to her 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS. I4I 

own circumstances. As a beautiful hymn 
sweetly sung makes a deeper and more lively 
impression than when read, the well-known 
words, as I heard them from the queen, gave 
rise to new feelings. For her melodious > man- 
ner of reciting it, though it was not exactly 
intoned, was like an ecstatic song, poured 
forth from her pure heart. As I listened to 
and looked at this exalted and enlightened 
woman, with the words of everlasting life on 
her eloquent lips, the words came into my 
mind, ' In thy light shall we see light ,' and, 
' Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be 
comforted.' Every thing became clearer to me 
than before, and she appeared more beautiful 

than ever." 
10 



XL 



Mi 



i 1 $ i t. 




'EGOTIATIONS for peace were opened 
in Tilsit, and the king's advisers be- 
lieved that the presence of the queen 
at head-quarters would greatly facilitate the 
negotiations, and secure better terms. Napo- 
leon himself had a great desire to see her. 
She, therefore, returned from Memel to Tilsit. 

" What resignation it cost me," she wrote in 
her diary, " God only knows ; for, though I do 
not hate the man, I look upon him as the au- 
thor of the unhappiness of the king and his 
people. I admire his talents ; but his character, 
so cunning and false, I cannot like. It will be 
difficult for me to be polite and gracious to 
him ; still the effort is demanded, and I must 
make the sacrifice." 




Interview with Napoleon. 



AT TILSIT. 145 

On the evening of the 4th of July Louisa 
reached Puktupohnen, a village near Tilsit, 
where the king was stopping. Napoleon 
immediately sent to inquire if Her Majesty 
would show him the honor of dining with him, 
and that he would, with her permission, call 
and see her on her arrival in town. She an- 
swered affirmatively, and an hour after her ar- 
rival in Tilsit the emperor approached with a 
large escort. 

It was not a light task which devolved 
upon the indisposed queen, to receive such a 
visitor. She understood well, however, how 
to treat him with politeness, tact, and self- 
possession. 

When he had ascended the stairs she greet- 
ed him in a friendly manner, but with dignity. 
After a few words on ordinary topics, Louisa 
spoke of the reasons that had brought her to 
Tilsit : 

"I came to ask you. Emperor, to grant a 
favorable peace to Prussia." 



146 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

In reply to this, Napoleon asked, in a some- 
what contemptuous tone, 

" How could you commence war with 
me ? " 

" Sire," answered the queen, " it was the 
glory of Frederic the Great which led us to be 
deceived in our strength, if we have deceived 
ourselves." 

This conversation, in which Napoleon 
brought up every thing, in order, by his en- 
tangling questions, to embarrass the queen, 
lasted three quarters of an hour. How much 
Louisa suffered then, more for the sake of 
others than herself, she remembered afterward 
with tears. 

" I was only a woman, a weak woman," she 
wrote, " and yet I rose high above the ad- 
versaries, who were so poor and timid of 
heart." 

At the sumptuous banquet which the em- 
peror had prepared for his guests, the place of 
honor assign e4 to the queen was on the right 



AT TILSIT. 147 

hand of Napoleon, while the king sat on his 
left. 

" The strength of character and spirit of 
this princess or queen," so wrote a renowned 
French writer and admirer of Napoleon, " made 
itself felt in the conversation, so that the em- 
peror himself was embarrassed, who, though 
nothing wanting in politeness to her, let not a 
word escape which would in any way commit 
him. During the repast she endeavored to 
draw from him some word of hope in behalf 
of Magdeburg." 

The king deported himself in a silent and 
dignified manner. Napoleon tried to comfort 
him for the sacrifice of his hereditary kingdom,' 
by saying it was the common vicissitude of war. 
Whereupon the king answered, in the anguish 
of his heart, that he. Napoleon, might speak 
lightly of it, for he knew not what it was to 
lose an hereditary kingdom, with which the 
dearest associations of youth were bound, as to 
one's cradle. 



148 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

" What cradle ! " exclaimed Napoleon, laugh- 
ing. " When a child grows up it has no more 
time to think about its cradle." 

" Still," answered the king to the emperor, 
" a man can no more forget his youth than he 
can disown it, and a man of feeling will grate- 
fully remember the cradle in which he lay as a 
child." 

Such home thrusts as these were not calcu- 
lated to win one who had always been used to 
flattery. But it was impossible for the king to 
dissemble. 

Napoleon, on his departure, offered the 
queen a very rare and beautiful rose. At first 
she seemed inclined to refuse it, but finally 
took it, saying : 

" At least with Magdeburg." 

But the emperor answered uncourteously : 

" Remember, your majesty, that it is in my 
power to offer, and only in your majesty's to 
accept r 

A dignified silence was most appropriate to 



AT TILSIT. 149 

such a response. He knew too well, on this 
sad day to Prussia, how to embarrass and hu- 
miliate the queen. But her noble and self-pos- 
sessed appearance made a deep impression on 
his mind, and he had previously determined, on 
her account, on giving easy terms of peace; but 
he recalled to mind the warning of his great 
minister, Talleyrand, who had said to him, 

*' Sire, shall posterity say that you have not 
profited by your great conquests because of a 
beautiful woman V 

On the 9th of July, therefore, the treaty of 
peace was signed at Tilsit, which was so crush- 
ing for Prussia, and on the lOth the king and 
queen departed for Memel. 

"The peace is concluded," she wrote, this 
day, " but at a fearful price ! Our boundaries 
in the future only extend to the Elbe ; yet the 
king is greater than his adversary. After the 
battle of Eylau he could have made an advan- 
tageous peace ; but then he would have been 
obliged to negotiate with Napoleon, and go 



1 5 O Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

against Russia ; while now he has been com- 
pelled to negotiate through necessity, and will 
not enter into an alliance with him. That will 
bring blessing hereafter to Prussia ; that, at 
least, is my firm belief." 




XII. 

H^ette^l to M^v^ |'athet|. 

!HE following letter of the queen, the 
most remarkable and interesting of 
all, shows how thorough an under- 
standing she had of the position of her coun- 
try ; it also gives us a glimpse of her domestic 
and matrimonial happiness, and of the talents 
and dispositions of her children. 
She wrote in the spring of 1808 : 




" Best of Fathers : — It is all over with us, 
if not forever, at least for the present. I hope 
for nothing more during this life. I have re- 
signed myself, and in this resignation, this 
submission to the will of Heaven, I am at rest 
and in great peace, and if not happy in an 
earthly sense, I am, of what is more importance. 



IS2 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

mentally happy. I see with increasing clear- 
ness that it was necessary for every thing to 
happen as it has happened. Divine Provi- 
dence is imperceptibly introducing a new order 
of things into the world, while the old order is 
passing away. We have been slumbering on 
the laurels of Frederic the Great, who, the 
foremost man of his century, created a new 
era. We have not advanced with this age, and 
therefore it has passed on and left us behind. 
To no one is this clearer than to the king. I 
have had a long conversation with him on the 
subject, and he said penitently, 'We must do 
differently.' 

" The best and most considerate are some- 
times misled, and the French emperor, at least, 
is more wary and cunning. If the Russians and 
the Prussians had fought as bravely as lions, 
we would have been compelled to leave the 
enemy with the advantage, if not actually the 
victor. From Napoleon we can learn much, 
and the lesson will not be forgotten. It were 



LETTER TO HER FATHER. 153 

blasphemy to say, ' God be with him ;' still, he 
is visibly an instrument in the hands of the 
Almighty to put an end to the old order of 
things, and inaugurate a new age. Faith in a 
perfect Being assures us that better times will 
certainly come. But it can only work good for 
the world through the good ; and for this reason 
I do not believe that the Emperor Napoleon 
Bonaparte is so very secure upon his, at pres- 
ent, brilliant throne. Truth and righteousness 
alone can give peace and security, while he is 
only politically wise, acting according to cir- 
cumstances, and not according to the laws of 
eternity. He has blotted his reign with many 
sins. He does not endeavor to elevate good 
men and good things, but thinks only of his 
own immeasurable ambition and his own in- 
terest. One is more amazed than pleased with 
what he does. He is blinded by his success, 
and imagines he can accomplish every thing. 
He is entirely without moderation, and without 
that a man soon loses his equilibrium and falls. 



154 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

I believe firmly in God, and I also believe in a 
moral supervision of the world. 

" But this supervision I cannot reconcile 
with the dominion of mere power, and there- 
fore I hope that the present evil time will be 
followed by a better. It is hoped for and ex- 
pected by the better class of men, and we must 
not be led astray by the praise lavished upon 
the great hero of the day. It is evident to ali 
that what has happened, and is happening, is 
not for the ultimate good, but the opening of 
the way to a better future. That future, how- 
ever, appears far distant, and we shall not 
probably ever live to see it. As God wills ; all 
things as he wills. In this hope I find com- 
fort, strength, courage, and cheerfulness. Is 
not every thing in this world transitory } Yet 
we must pass through it ; and it should be our 
greatest care, as it is our greatest duty, to be- 
come each day riper and better. 

" Here, dear father, you have my political 
confession of faith, as wdl as I, a woman, can 



LETTER TO HER FATHER. 155 

fashion it and set it forth. It may have its 
faults, and you must, therefore, excuse my 
troubhng you with it. But you see, at least, 
by it, that you have a daughter vi^ho is pious 
and resigned under reverses, and that the foun- 
dation of Christian faith, which she owes to 
your instruction and example, has had its fruit, 
and will have so long as life lasts, 

" You will be pleased to hear, dear father, 
that the misfortune which has fallen upon us 
has not affected our domestic happiness ; in- 
deed, it seems to have drawn us nearer to- 
gether, and strengthened our affections. The 
king, who is the best of men, is kinder than 
ever. Often I fancy that I see in him the 
lover and the bridegroom ; more in actions 
than in words do I perceive his constant de- 
votion to me. Only yesterday he said to me, 
looking at me with his guileless eyes and ear- 
nest expression of countenance, * Dear Louisa, 
thou hast become dearer and more precious 
than ever to me in misfortune. Now I know 



1 5 6 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

by experience what I possess in thee. Let the 
storm continue without, as it will ; if only our 
happiness remain undisturbed, we are secure. 
Because I love thee so fondly, I have desired 
our youngest-born little daughter to be called 
Louisa. May she become a Louisa ! ' This 
tenderness on his part affected me to tears. It 
is my pride, my joy, and my happiness to pos- 
sess the love of the best of men, and because I 
love him in return with all my heart, and we 
are so united that the will of the one is the will 
of the other, it is very easy for us to preserve 
this harmony day by day. Indeed, he pleases 
me in all things, and I please him in all things, 
and we are never so happy as when together. 
Pardon me, dear father, if I say this in a cer- 
tain vain-glorious manner ; it is the artless 
expression of my joy, in which no one in the 
world takes a deeper interest than you, my 
good father. I have also learned from the king 
to do good to others, of which I must not 
•write ; it is enough that we know it. 



LETTER TO HER FATHER. 15/ 

" Our children are our real treasures, and in 
them we place our fondest hopes, 

" The crown prince is full of life and spirit. 
He has splendid talents, which have already 
begun to develop. He is truthful in all his 
perceptions and expressions. He is very zeal- 
ous in the study of history, and is deeply im- 
pressed by the great and the good. He has 
much inclination to humor, and his comical, 
overdrawn ideas afford us much entertainment. 
He is particularly attached to his mother, and 
could not be purer minded than he is. I love 
him most tenderly, and often speak to him of 
the duties which will devolve upon him if he 
lives to become king, 

" Our son William will, if I am not mistaken, 
take after his father, and be plain, honest, and 
of good understanding. He resembles him 
also in personal appearance, only, I think, that 
he will not be so handsome. You see, dear 
father, that I am still deeply enamored with my 
husband. 



158 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

" Our daughter Charlotte every day gives me 
more joy. She is reserved, and lives much 
within herself. But within an apparently cold 
exterior she possesses a warm, generous heart, 
showing that there is something gentle in her 
nature. If she only embraces Christianity, I 
anticipate for her a brilliant future. Carl is 
good-natured, joyful, honest, and talented. He 
is developing physically as well as mentally, 
and his naivete often makes us laugh. His 
never-ending questions not unfrequently throw 
me into embarrassment, because I cannot 
answer them. They exhibit a great thirst for 
knowledge. I am convinced that he will go 
through life joyously, but not without being 
sensible of the joys and sorrows of others. 
Alexandrine is, as is natural with children of 
her age and disposition, childish and insinuat- 
ing. She exhibits good understanding and a 
lively imagination. She has a fondness for the 
ridiculous, and shows much talent for satire, 
but without marring her good-nature. Of 



LETTER TO HER FATHER. 1 59 

little Louisa, much cannot yet be said. She 
has the profile and eyes of her father. I wish 
that she may become like her amiable and 
pious grandmother, Louisa of Orange, wife of 
the great elector. 

" Now, dear father, I have conducted you 
through my whole gallery. You will say that 
it is like any partial mother, who sees all the 
goodness and beauty in her children, but is 
blind to all their failings and faults. I cannot 
find any thing in them to give me cause for 
anxiety in the future. Our children, like all 
other children, have their whims and peculiari- 
ties ; but, as they grow older, they will learn 
how to correct them. 

" Circumstances educate men, and I trust 
that pur children will be benefited by seeing, 
while so young, the earnest and serious side of 
life. Had they been thrown into the lap of 
luxury and ease, they might have thought that 
it would always be so ; but that it can be other- 
wise they now see by the serious countenance 
11 



1 60 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

of their father and the frequent tears of their 
mother. It will prove especially beneficial to 
the crown prince in the future, that he has 
become . acquainted with misfortune in his 
youth. It will teach him how to value pros- 
perity when it comes, as I hope it will, and 
how to make beneficent use of it. My 
thoughts are wholly centered in my children, 
and it is my daily prayer that God will bless 
them, and give them his Holy Spirit. If God 
preserve our good children he will preserve our 
best treasures, which no one can tear from us. 
Then, let what will occur, in the society of our 
dear children we shall be happy. 

" I write this to you, my beloved father, that 
you may think of us in tranquillity. I com- 
mend my husband to your fatherly remem- 
brance, and my children also, who, with this 
letter, kiss the hands of their venerable grand- 
father. I remain, dear father, 

" Your sincere daughter, 

" Louisa." 




XIII. 

K -S the betrothal and marriage of the 



daughter Charlotte to the Grand 
Duke Nicholas, afterward Emperor 
of Russia, whose character Louisa partially de- 
scribes in this letter to her father, forms one 
of the sweetest and most romantic love-epi- 
sodes in the history of European courts, we 
give it, as taken from a recent work : — 

Charlotte was just sixteen when, in the 
year 1814, the Grand Duke Nicholas, on his 
way to the camp of the allied armies in France, 
passed through Berlin, and was warmly wel- 
comed as an honored guest at the royal palace. 

The description which those who saw and 
knew the grand duke at that time have given 
of the incomparable graces of his person and 



1 62 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

mind makes it easy for us to imagine that the 
heart of a young girl just budding into woman- 
hood was captivated and charmed by him al- 
most at first sight. Well he might have said, 
like Caesar, " I came, I saw, I conquered." The 
princess fell in love with him, and, fortunately 
for her, the young grand duke returned her 
love fully as passionately. 

The Grand Duke Nicholas had the reputa- 
tion of being one of the handsomest, if not the 
very handsomest, man of his times ; and his 
majestic and stately form, which measured no 
less than six feet and two inches, was consid- 
ered unequaled in beauty, not only in Russia, 
but in all Europe. He was vigorous, strong, 
full of life and health, with broad shoulders and 
chest, while his small hands and feet were of 
the most aristocratic elegance ; his whole figure 
realized the perfect model of manly and com- 
manding beauty which the divine art of a 
sculptor of antiquity has immortalized under 
the features of the Apollo Belvidere. His 



THE ROMANCE OF A RING. 1 63 

features were of the Grecian cast — forehead 
and nose formed a straight line — and his large 
blue, sincere eyes showed a singular combina- 
tion of composure, sternness, self-reliance, and 
pride, among which it would have been difficult 
for the observer to name the predominant ex- 
pression. Those who would have looked close- 
ly and attentively into those remarkable eyes 
would have easily believed that their threaten- 
ing glances would suffice to suppress a rebel- 
lion, to terrify and disarm a murderer, or to 
frighten away a suppHcant ; but there would 
have been but few to believe that the sternness 
of these eyes could be so entirely softened as to 
beam forth nothing but love and kindness. 
Among these few was, however, the young 
Prussian princess, who had drunk deep in their 
intoxicating fervor. It is true that she was the 
only person in the world in whose presence the 
Olympian gravity of his features gave way to a 
radiant cheerfulness, which made his manly 
beauty perfectly irresistible. 



1 64 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

In such moments his magnificent brow, 
always the seat of meditation and thought, 
exhibited the serene beauty and Attic grace 
of a young Athenian ; the serious Pericles 
seemed, by the invisible wand of a magician, 
to have been transformed into the yduthful 
Alcibiades. 

Such is the flattering picture which his 
contemporaries have drawn of the personal 
appearance of the Grand Duke Nicholas at the 
time of his arrival at Berlin. 

At that time, however, the matchless per- 
sonal charms of the grand duke were not en- 
hanced by political prospects of the most ex- 
alted character. He was not even eventually 
considered an heir to the imperial crown of 
Russia. It is true, Alexander I., his brother, 
had no children, but in the case of his death, 
which could not be expected soon, the Grand 
Duke Constantine was to inherit the throne of 
Peter the Great, and leave to Nicholas at best 
but the position of a prince of the first blood. 



THE ROMANCE OF A RING. 1 65 

Nevertheless, Frederick William, charmed alike 
by the beauty and intellect of his guest, and by 
the hope of uniting the sovereign houses of 
Prussia and Russia by .the close ties of a family 
union, greeted the prospect of a marriage be- 
tween the grand duke and his daughter with 
enthusiasm, especially when he discovered that 
the young folks themselves were very fond of 
each other. 

The king then delicately insinuated to his 
daughter that if she had taken a liking to the 
grand duke, and had reason to believe that the 
prince entertained similar feelings toward her, 
their marriage would meet with no objection 
on his part. 

But the young princess, although secretly 
delighting in a hope which so fully responded 
to the secret wishes of her heart, was either too 
proud or too bashful to confess to her father 
her love for the grand duke, who had not yet 
made any declaration to her. 

In this manner the day approached on 



1 66 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

which the grand duke was to leave Berlin. 
On the eve of his departure a grand gala sup- 
per was given in his honor at the royal palace, 
and, by way of accident or policy, the young 
Princess Charlotte was seated by the side of 
her distinguished admirer. 

The grand duke was uncommonly taciturn 
during the evening. His high forehead was 
clouded, and his gloomy eyes seemed to follow 
in the space vague phantoms flitting before his 
imagination. Repeatedly he neglected to reply 
to questions addressed to him, and when he 
was asked to respond to a toast which one of 
the royal princes had proposed in his honor, he 
seemed to awake from a profound dream which 
had entirely withdrawn him from his surround- 
ings. 

Suddenly, as if by a mighty effort of his 
will, he turned to his fair neighbor, and whis- 
pered so as only to be understood by her : — 

" So I shall leave Berlin to-morrow ! " 

He paused abruptly, and looked at the prin- 



THE ROMANCE OF A RING. 1 6/ 

cess, as if he was waiting for an answer which 
expressed sorrow and grief on her part. But 
the princess was fully as proud as the grand 
duke, and, overcoming the violent throbbing of 
her heart, she said poHtely to him : — 

"We are all very sorry to see your Impe- 
rial Highness leave us so soon. Would it not 
have been possible for you to defer your de- 
parture .'' " 

" You will all be very sorry } " muttered the 
grand duke, not entirely satisfied with the 
vagueness of sorrow which these words of the 
princess implied. " But you in particular, 
madame ? " he added, after some hesitation. 
" For it will depend on you alone whether I 
shall stay here or depart." 

" Ah ! " replied Charlotte, with her sweetest 
smile, "and what have I to do to keep your 
Imperial Highness here ? " 

" You must permit me to address my ad- 
miration and homage to you." 

" Is that all .? " 



1 68 Q UEEN^ L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

"And you must encourage me to please you." 

" That is much more difficult," said the 
princess, with a deep blush, but at the same 
time her eyes beamed forth so much affection 
and delight that the prince could see at a 
glance that his fondest hopes had been realized 
beforehand. 

" During my short stay at Berlin," the grand 
duke continued in the same tone of voice, " I 
have taken pains to study your character and 
your affections, and this study has satisfied me 
that you would render me very happy, while, on 
the other hand, I have some qualities which 
I think would secure your happiness." 

The princess was overcome by emotion, 
and in her confusion did not know what to 
answer. At last she said, "But here, in the 
presence of the whole court, at the public table, 
you put such a question to me ! " 

" O," replied the prince, " you need not make 
any verbal reply. It will be sufficient for you 
to give me some pledge of your affection. I 



THE ROMANCE OF A RING. 1 69 

see there on your hand a small ring whose pos- 
session would make me very happy. Give it to 
me," 

" What do you think of it, here in the pres- 
ence of a hundred spectators ? " 

" Ah, it can be easily done without being 
seen by any body. Now we are chatting so 
quietly with each other that there is not one 
among the guests who suspects in the least 
what we are speaking about. Press the ring 
into a morsel of bread, and leave it on the 
table ; I will take the talisman, and nobody 
will notice it." 

" This ring is really a talisman." 

" I expected so. May I hope to hear its 
history 1 " 

" Why not } My first governess was a Swiss 
lady, by the name of Wildermatt. Once she 
went to Switzerland in order to enter upon 
an inheritance which had been bequeathed to 
her by a distant relative. When she came 
back to Berlin, a few weeks afterward, she 



1 70 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

showed me quite a collection of pretty and 
costly jewelry, which formed part of the inher- 
itance. 'This is a curious old ring,' said I to 
her as I put this little old-fashioned ring on 
my finger. 'Does it not look queer and cun- 
ning } Perhaps it is an old relic or talisman, 
and may have been worn centuries ago by a 
pious lady, who had received it from her 
knight, starting for the Holy Land,' I tried 
to take the ring from my finger again, but I 
could not get it off, for I was a little fleshier 
then than now," said Charlotte, smilingly. " My 
governess insisted on my keeping the ring as a 
souvenir. I accepted her present, and the ring 
has been on my finger ever since. Some time 
afterward, when I was contemplating its strange 
workmanship, I succeeded in pulling it from 
my finger, and was much surprised at seeing 
engraved on the inside some words which, 
though nearly rubbed out by the wear of time, 
were still legible. Now, your Imperial High- 
ness, what do you think were the words en- 



THE ROMANCE OF A RING. 17 1 

graved upon it ? I think when you hear them 
you will take some interest in the ring." 

" Ah ! and pray what were they ? " 

" The words engraved upon the inside were, 
' Empress of Russia! This ring had undoubt- 
edly been presented by an Empress of Russia 
to a relative of Madame Wildermatt, for I was 
told that both this lady and her mother had 
formerly belonged to the household of the czar- 
ina, your august grandmother." 

"This is really remarkable," said the grand 
duke, thoughtfully. " I am quite superstitious, 
and I am really inclined to regard this ring, if I 
should be happy enough to receive it from you 
as a pledge of your love, as an omen of very 
auspicious significance." 

In answer to this second, and even more 
direct, appeal to her heart, the princess took a 
small piece of bread, played carelessly with it, 
and managed to press the ring into the soft 
crumbs. Then she dropped it playfully on the 
table quite close to the plate of her neighbor. 



172 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

And after this adroit exhibition of her skill as 
an actress she continued to eat as unconcern- 
edly as if she had performed the most insignifi- 
cant action of her life. 

With the same apparent coolness and in- 
difference the grand duke picked up the bread 
inclosing the ring, took the latter out of its 
ingenious envelope, and concealed it in his 
breast, for it was too small to fit any of his 
fingers. It was this ring — both the pledge of 
Charlotte's love and the auspicious omen of his 
own elevation to the imperial dignity — which 
Nicholas wore on a golden chain around his 
neck to the very last day of his life, and which, 
if we are not mistaken, has even descended 
with him into the vault of his ancestors. 

Three years after, in 1817, Princess Char- 
lotte, then only nineteen years of age, and in 
the full splendor of beauty and happiness, made 
her entry into St. Petersburg by the side of her 
husband, whose eye had never looked prouder, 
and whose Olympian brow had never been 



THE ROMANCE OF A RING. 1 73 

more serene than at this happiest moment of 
his Hfe. As he looked down upon the vast 
multitude who had gathered from every quar- 
ter of the vast empire to greet the young 
princess with shouts and rejoicings, and then 
again upon his fair young bride, perhaps the 
inscription of the ring recurred to his mind, 
for, bending his head quite close to the ear of 
Charlotte, he whispered, " Now empress of the 
hearts, and some day, perhaps, empress of the 
realm." 

At this moment the procession reached the 
main entrance of the Winter Palace, where 
Alexander I., the emperor, surrounded by a 
brilliant suit of generals and courtiers, came to 
meet his beautiful sister-in-law, and conducted 
her into the sumptuous drawing-rooms of this 
magnificent palace of the czars. This palace 
was rebuilt in one year at a great sacrifice of 
human life. Six thousand men were required 
to be constantly employed, and many out of 
this number died daily on account of the ex- 



1/4 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

treme heat necessary for its completion — all of 
this to carry out the caprice of one man. It is 
considered one of the most extensive and mag- 
nificent royal structures in any country. Who 
would believe that eight short years afterward 
the brilliant young emperor had breathed his 
last, and that Nicholas and Charlotte would 
succeed him on the throne of Russia.? The 
Grand Duke Constantine, the legitimate heir 
to the throne, having no desire to reign, and 
having no legal heir, resigned the crown in his 
favor. Truly the inscription of the engage- 
ment-ring had proven prophetic ! * 

* Monroe, " Public and Parlor Readings," pp. 205 flf. 




XIV. 

MUBV^ the ¥eati$ of ^ot|)|ow. 

N these troublous times Louisa occupied 
herself much with, the study of history, 
wishing to live in the past, as the future 
had lost all its attractiveness for her. Espe- 
cially was she interested in the history of Ger- 
, many in the olden times. The motto of the 
good old days of the knights, "Justice, faith, 
and love," pleased her so much, that she had it 
engraved on a seal. At this time she said, 
were she to choose a motto for herself it should 
be, " God is my confidence." 

She saw, too, in the re-awakening of Chris- 
tianity, the dawn of morning after a long night, 
and was once more filled with the hope that 
the people of Prussia, and indeed of all Ger- 
many, humbled by the severe judgments of 
12 



1/6 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

God, would again rise to power, and be able to 
throw off the foreign yoke. 

The queen was a zealous advocate of educa- 
tion, and exerted herself for its advancement, 
for she knew what a powerful influence it 
would have on the rising generation. She 
read with great pleasure and profit Pestalozzi's 
celebrated book, '•'Lienhard and Gertrude." 
The following passage especially pleased her : 
" Sorrow and misery, if they are endured, are 
blessings of God." 

Pestalozzi was the closing member in one of 
the most remarkable educational groups that 
have arisen in history. His good predecessors 
were Herder, Basedow, Campe, and Salzmann ; 
but in the one department of thorough educa- 
tional reform he was the greatest of them all. 
Some of his critics have alleged that his sym- 
pathies with Christianity were not strong ; but 
in practical life, and particularly in his labors 
for poor children, he exhibited the true Chris- 
tian spirit. In 1775 he founded his "Poor 



AFTER THE YEARS OF SORRO IV. i jy 

School for the Children of Beggars ;" but it was 
in 1798 that his true greatness shone forth the 
brightest, when he fed and clothed the children 
saved from the smoking ruins of Stanz, in 
Switzerland. He was the only father the 
orphans had. He slept with them, and would . 
not leave them until the storm of war drove 
him away. 

His idea was, in his entire educational system, 
to develop what was native to the child, and not 
merely to fill the mind with foreign material. 
He held, that by discipline in self-exercise the 
intellect receives its highest development. 
With the beginning of the present century his 
reputation became world-wide. His theory of 
education grew to be the common property of 
Europe, and still prevails in the schools of all 
civilized lands. We are not surprised that his 
efforts to relieve the poor and improve the 
minds of children should enlist the profound 
sympathy of Louisa. It was his noble heart 
that attracted her attention, and made her one 



1/8 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

of the best and truest friends of education, even 
amid her country's prostration. 

The Emperor Alexander, at this time, gave 
King William and Queen Louisa a very urgent 
invitation to visit St, Petersburg, hoping that 
they might, by a little change and recreation, 
revive their drooping spirits. Accordingly on 
the 27th of December, 1808, they set out for 
the Russian capital, attended by a very small 
escort. 

" It was in the deep winter-time, and costly 
robes of fur were presented to the royal guests 
and their suite. The post-houses were newly 
built, and furnished for their reception ; dis- 
charges of cannon thundered out their stento- 
rian welcome — groups of peasants on horse- 
back in their national costume awaited them — 
sledges, with princely appointments and escorts, 
bore them swiftly over the icy roads, and thirty 
thousand troops lined the streets of St. Peters- 
burg as they drove to the palace — the queen 
herself riding in a carriage which, with dehcate 



AFTER THE YEARS OF SORRO W. 



179 



consideration to her feelings, was built after the 
model of the one she used when in Konigsberg. 

" Twelve elegant rooms were appropriated to. 
the queen — one with hangings of pale pink silk, 
draped with delicate muslin, with a toilette of 
gold ; and a basket containing six superb Turk- 
ish shawls was presented to her. 

" The night of her arrival St. Petersburg was 
brightly defined by Hnes of light, dazzling the 
eye with their brilliancy. Magnificent pres- 
ents, contrasting strangely in their royal splen- 
dor with the frugal fare and simple rooms of 
Memel, awaited her acceptance on New Year's 
Day — crystal vases with glass pedestals six feet 
high — exquisite porcelain vases — a sumptuous 
table-service of crystal, India shawls, and other 
costly articles. On this day a brilliant wed- 
ding took place — the Duchess Catherine, the 
emperor's sister, being united to the Prince of 
Oldenburg." * 

Each day brought a new feast, but Louisa 

* " The Perfect Light," pp. 123-4. 



1 80 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

felt more saddened than rejoiced by the splen- 
dor. More pleasure was afforded her by the 
benevolent institutions which she visited than 
by any thing else. She visited one of these, 
in company with the dowager empress, which 
supported three hundred and sixty young girls. 
She readily appreciated the great value of such 
establishments, and made minute observations, 
that she might be able to found others in her 
own country. Unfortunately she did not live 
to see the realization of this wish. There was 
one, however, consecrated to her memory on 
the first anniversary of her death, its aim being 
to develop in the women of the future the 
piety, purity of heart, beauty of soul, truth, 
and faith, which were so beautifully resplen- 
dent in the character of their departed queen. 
Louisa visited with equal interest the hospital 
for foundlings, founded by Catherine II. 

In Riga, among other places of interest, the 
royal pair were shown the Guildhall of the 
""Black Heads," a society dating from the year 



AFTER THE YEARS OF SORROW. l8l 

1390, the members of which took the vow 
never to marry. 

" If you had belonged to this society," said 
the king to Louisa, "you would have been 
spared your sad experience," 

The queen answered : 

" Had our trouble been ten times as great as 
it has been, and you had told me of it pre- 
viously, you would not have made me become 
a member." 

These uninterrupted festivities continued 
until the 31st of January, 1809, when the king 
and queen returned again to Konigsberg. On 
her return she wrote as follows : 

" I have returned as I went. Nothing daz- 
zles me any more. My kingdom is not of this 
world." 

Men like Von Stein and Gneisenau judged 
the journey harshly. The latter wrote : 

" The king has been in a bad humor since 
his return. He scolds about trifles in the serv- 
ice. At St. Petersburg he saw the Russians 



1 82 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

dressed up for reviews. Certainly the half- 
slaughtered East Prussians are a contrast to 
them. Every thing must look very insignifi- 
cant to him after the pomp there ; his half- 
monarchy, his half-palace, the half romance of 
the last few years ; but this is all in harmony 
with half measures." 

Von Stein gave the following answer : 
" The journey was made for the sake of 
being dazzled. People take pomp for strength, 
fearful weakness for prudence, and are glad of 
a few moments' rest to hide their eyes from the 
future, which has nothing to promise but a 
miserable and humiliating existence." 

It may be that the reception at St. Peters- 
burg was not without designed intention on 
the part of the Russian court, and it may have 
had a lulling influence on the royal pair ; but 
certainly the amiable attentions which were 
showered upon them were sincere, and it is 
clear that the heart of the queen was not in all 
this pomp, 



AFTER THE YEARS OF SORROW. 1 83 

Louisa wrote immediately after the anniver- 
sary of her birthday, March 12, 1809: 

" My birthday was a fearful day to me, A 
splendid banquet was given by the city in my 
honor in the evening ; before that there had been 
an abundant and handsome repast in the pal- 
ace. Oh, how sad it made me ! My heart was 
torn. I smiled, and said pleasant things to 
those who gave the banquet, I made myself 
agreeable to every body, yet I did not know 
where to turn for grief. To whom will Prussia 
belong at the end of the year } Where shall 
we all be scattered } Almighty Father, have 
mercy upon us ! " 

The king and queen were prevented from 
returning to Berlin at this time on account of 
the new war with Austria, They therefore re- 
turned to Konigsberg, and took possession of a 
small estate called Hufen, situated in a se- 
cluded but delightful valley. Louisa's health 
was in a bad condition at this time, and the 
misfortune of Austria, which completed the 



1 84 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

servitude of Germany, prostrated her still more. 
She said, almost in despair, " God only knows 
where I shall die. I fear I will not be on Prus- 
sian soil." 

The occasion of the baptism of the youngest 
child in October, 1809, was a painful day to 
her on account of the minister's dull, soulless, 
rationalistic discourse. He had no idea of the 
power of the sacrament, knew nothing of the 
covenant made with God, through baptism, into 
the death of Christ ; his only idea was that of 
a consecration of the child on its entrance into 
life. The queen could not be comforted until 
it was proved to her, from the works of the 
writers of the Protestant Church, that the 
power of baptism did not depend altogether 
upon those who administered it. She saw in 
the prevailing skepticism fresh cause for the 
misfortune of Prussia. "We have sunk be- 
cause we have let go," she said. This warned 
her anew not to become weary of laboring for 
the religious elevation of the people. The re- 



AFTER THE YEARS OF SORROW. 1 85 

nowned minister Von Stein entered quite into 
the views of the king and queen, and stated 
that the most important task now was "to 
encourage a moral, religious, patriotic spirit in 
the nation." 

The queen, after her return from St. Peters- 
burg, was full of longings to be again in Berlin. 
In August she wrote : 

" Since my health will allow it, we go on the 
i2th to Pillau. O that it were to Berlin! A 
home-sickness that I cannot describe draws me 
thither, and to my Charlottenburg ! " 

On the 15th of December a return to Berlin 
was really decided upon, and yet she looked 
forward to it with a certain feeling of sadness. 
She could not tell why she had this feeling in 
reference to a journey she so much desired. 

" So I shall soon be in Berlin again," she 
wrote, " and return to so many true hearts that 
love and esteem me. My joy in the thought is 
so great that I shed tears whenever I think of 
finding every thing as it was. And yet every 



I«0 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

thing will be so different, that I cannot now 
conceive what I shall do. Dark anticipations 
trouble me ; but I hope things will be pleas- 
anter than I anticipate." 

The joyous reception which the royal couple 
met every-where on their way to Berlin, mani- 
fested how little the late troubles had destroyed 
the love which had existed between tbe people 
and the ruhng dynasty. Their entry into Ber- 
lin occurred the same day on which, sixteen 
years before, Louisa had entered a happy bride. 
The tears of the queen fell like burning drops 
into the hearts of the best of the people. 

The great and good Ernst Moritz Arndt 
wrote : 

"More eyes were wet with tears of sorrow 
than joy. The deep grief of the beautiful 
queen was evident in the midst of her joy as 
she stood at the window acknowledging the 
people's greeting, for her eyes were red with 
weeping." 

There is scarcely any other German who has 



AFTER THE YEARS OF SORROW. 1 8/ 

been so much applauded by his country as the 
author of the above paragraph. He was be- 
loved for his Christian patriotism, which he 
strove to exhibit on every possible occasion. 
He sought in every way to arouse in the hearts 
of his fellow-countrymen a Christian and na- 
tional spirit. 

We find among his numerous writings a 
small work, which was written at this time, 
and entitled, " Catechism for the German War- 
rior," and from which we make a few extracts. 
He first gives a sketch of the history of Ger- 
many, and after describing the outrages of the 
French, he continues : 

" It is now the will of God that this pride 
shall be curbed ; that the French shall be pun- 
ished for the outrages that they have commit- 
ted in every land, and which cry to Heaven. 
It is the will of God that the Germans shall 
arise in righteous indignation, and smite the 
tyrant, and regain the freedom which they in- 
herited from their fathers. Yes, people of 



1 8 8 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

Germany, God will give you love and trust, 
and you will see what you are, and what you 
ought to be. God will kindle a flame within 
your hearts and awaken the bold spirit of lib- 
erty that the enemy would fain cause to slum- 
ber. God himself will go before you, and be 
with your hosts, and bless your banners with 
victory, if you will only have faith in eternal 
justice, and believe that there is a God who 
will crush the tyrant. . , , Brave and pious 
heroes, it is in the power of Him to lift man 
out of and above himself, so that he scarcely 
knows what he has been or what he is. The 
arm of man is weak unless God lends it 
strength, and his heart is easily discouraged 
unless inspired with unconquerable faith." 

The same spirit pervades every thing that 
he wrote at this time, and he endeavored 
with all his strength to keep Christ continually 
before the people as their light and their sal- 
vation. It was truly in connection with Chris- 
tianity that this good man looked for the 



AFTER THE YEARS OF SORRO W. 1 89 

regeneration of his country, and which he was 
finally enabled to witness.* 

" Father Arndt," as he was later called, died 
on the 29th of January, i860, in his ninety- 
first year. He was followed to the grave by 
a vast procession of people, and the spot where 
he was interred had been selected by himself 
under an oak planted by his own hands. One 
of his own most beautiful hymns was sung, as 
he was committed to the earth, by loving 
friends. We give it as translated by Miss 
Winkworth, in the " Lyra Germanica :" 

GO AND DIG MY GRAVE TO-DAY. 
Go and dig my grave to-day : 

Weary of my wanderings all, 
Now from earth I pass away, 

For the heavenly peace doth call ; 
Angel voices from above 
Call me to their rest and love. 

Go and dig my grave to-day : 

Homeward doth my journey tend. 
And I lay my staff away 

Here where all things earthly end, 
* Baur, Religious Life in Germany, vol. ii, pp. 252-57. 



[ go Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A. 

And I lay my weary head 
On the only painless bed. 

What yet is there I should do, 
Lingering in this darksome vale ? 

Proud and mighty, fair to view, 
Are our schemes, and yet they fail. 

Like the sand before the wind, 

That no power of man can bind. 

Farewell, O ye much-loved friends, 
Grief hath smote you as a sword. 

But the Comforter descends 
Unto them who love the Lord. 

Weep not o'er a passing show. 

To the' eternal world I go. 

Weep not that I take my leave 
Of the world ; that I exchange 

Errors that too closely cleave. 

Shadows, empty ghosts that range 

Through this world of naught and night 

For a land of truth and light. 

Weep not, my Redeemer lives ; 

Heavenward, springing from the dust, 
Clear-eyed Hope her comfort gives ; 

Faith, Heaven's champion, bids me trust ; 
Love eternal whispers nigh, 
Child of God, fear not to die. 



AFTER THE YEARS OF SORROW. I9I 

In returning to Louisa, we find that the 
happiness that she had so much anticipated 
in returning to BerUn was not destined to be 
ofJong duration. Napoleon threatened to re- 
turn with an army of extermination if the 
war contribution was not paid. Deep anguish 
gnawed at the very Hfe of the queen. On the 
loth of March, 18 10, she said, sadly, "I think 
this will be the last birthday I shall ever cele- 
brate." Presentiments of death were constant- 
ly in her mind. Only a short time did her 
failing health improve, and that was during 
her residence in Potsdam. She received the 
holy communion in Berlin at Easter with great 
faith. On the 20th of May she visited, for the 
last time, Paretz, where she had spent so many 
happy days, and from which she had been ab- 
sent during so many weary years. She leaned 
upon the king's arm, and walked once more 
through the beautiful gardens and groves. 

" That gate has never been opened since 

her death, and the date of this last visit, 
13 



192 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

surmounted by her initial letters, is wrought in 
its iron tracery. The walk has been carefully 
turfed, and bordered with flowers ; and in the 
grotto on the banks of the Havel, where she 
used to sit and teach her children, is an iron 
table, on which is inscribed in letters of gold : 
' Remember the absent.' " * 

For several years it had been Louisa's wish 
to visit her father, the Duke of Strelitz ; only 
once since her marriage had she been so situ- 
ated as to be able to sleep under the paternal 
roof On the 25 th of June she started from 
CHarlottenburg to carry this long-cherished 
wish into execution. She passed through Ora- 
nienburg to Fiirstenburg, the first place within 
the boundaries of the dukedom of Strelitz. 
There her father, her youngest sister, and her 
two brothers were ready to receive her. On 
the journey thither Louisa was full of joy ; but 
now her cheerfulness gave way to a strange 
seriousness, and then to sorrow, as though her 

* " The Perfect Light," p. 122. 



AFTER THE YEARS VF SORROW. 1 93 

soul was moved with a dark foreboding that 
the tie which bound her to earth was very soon 
to be broken. The presence of the ducal 
family, who were standing ready to receive 
her, was a great surprise. She cried out in 
tears, "Oh, there is my father!" and rushed 
into his arms. 

At the entrance of the paternal castle, in 
Strelitz, the Landgravine of Hesse, who was 
now eighty-one years of age, waited to receive 
her granddaughter. Louisa sprang out of the 
carriage and embraced her venerable grand- 
mother, the true patroness of her childhood. 
They both wept tears of joy, as well as of 
sorrow. 

Louisa wished this visit to be given entirely 
to her relatives, and, therefore, set aside only 
one day for a public reception. As she ap- 
peared in the hall among the assembled people 
an indescribable loftiness of soul and mildness 
of manner seemed to pervade her being. Her 
beautiful, noble features bore the impress of 



194 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

great ■ sorrow, and when she involuntarily cast 
her eyes upward, they seemed to bespeak a 
longing for her heavenly home. Once an 
impressive silence reigned ; those present dared 
hot speak of the sorrowful past, in which the 
chastening hand of God had been manifested. 
A lady broke the painful silence by approach- 
ing the queen, and expressing her admiration 
at an exquisite necklace of pearls that Louisa 
wore — her only ornament. 

" Yes," answered the queen, " I love them 
very much. These are all I have reserved, 
after having given all my other jewelry for 
the good of the kingdom. They are so appro- 
priate, for they signify tears, of which I have 
shed so many." 

The king's arrival on the 28th of June com- 
pleted the joy of the queen. 

'• Now I am," she said, " quite happy for the 
first time since I came here ! " 

It was indeed a moment of general joy, sad- 
dened only by Louisa's illness. After the first 



AFTER THE YEARS OF SORROW. 1 95 

excitement of the re-union had subsided, she sat 
down to her father's writing-table and wrote : 

" My Dear Father, — I am to-day very 
happy as your daughter, and as the wife of 
the best of men. Louisa. 

"New Strelitz, iZth of June, 1810." 

These were the last words that she ever 
wrote, and they are preserved by her son, the 
present German emperor, as a sacred relic. 




XV. 

3[llne$$ and 3^eath. 

HAT Louisa might enjoy more 
quietly the society of her family 
after the arrival of thg king, they 
removed to the duke's castle of Hohenzieritz. 
She began immediately to suffer from fever 
and pain in her head. As she was not accus- 
tomed to notice trifling ailments, she made her 
appearance at the tea-table, and walked with 
the family in the garden in the evening. The 
following morning the physician found her in a 
very critical condition. On being bled she 
rallied, so that the king felt it safe to leave her. 
Pressing State business demanded his presence 
in Berlin, and he left, promising to return in a 
few days. During the course of the week her 
sickness seemed to decrease. She bore with 



ILLNESS AND DEATH. 197 

patience the sleepless nights, and her mind re- 
mained calm. 

The king was taken ill at Charlottenburg, 
and could not return as soon as he expected. 
He sent, however, the celebrated physician and 
surgeon, Dr. Heim, to his beloved wife, and he 
pronounced the greatest danger past. But on 
the following day she was again worse. A let- 
ter that she received from the king affected 
her very much. She laid it next her heart, 
and exclaimed, " Oh what a letter ! How hap- 
py the one who receives such a letter ! " 

She talked much of her precious children, 
and all proofs of sympathy in her sickness 
were fully appreciated, and afforded her great 
pleasure. Letters came daily from Berlin, ex- 
pressive of the most heartfelt concern for her 
welfare. Louisa's sister, the Princess of Solms, 
watched constantly at her bedside, and would 
not leave her. This devotion on the part of 
the princess caused Louisa much anxiety, and 
she insisted that her sister should take certain 



198 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

hours for rest. She was also concerned about 
the health of her father and her grandmother, 
and often sighed, " Oh, if only their anxiety for 
me were not so great ! It will make them ill ! " 

Toward the close of the week her condition 
seemed to be improved, and on Saturday, and 
Sunday especially, she appeared so free from 
pain that she was herself so joyfully certain of 
her convalescence that all entertained the most 
sanguine hopes of her recovery. 

But on Monday morning she was suddenly 
attacked with severe spasms, which, in spite of 
all aid, lasted five hours. The physician saw 
that it was an incurable affection of the heart, 
and, therefore, prepared the father for the death 
of his daughter. The duke sent couriers in 
great haste for the king. Louisa repeatedly 
asked, " Will he soon come .■' How late is it ? " 
She was very patient under her great pain, and 
whenever she felt the least relief, she thanked 
her heavenly Father with childlike confidence. 
The frailty of all earthly greatness, which she 



ILLNESS AND DEA TH. 1 99 

had experienced during her life, seemed to im- 
press itself upon her more forcibly than ever. 
Once she said, " I am queen, and yet cannot 
move my arm." 

During one of these painful hours she said to 
her physician, " Think of my dying, and leaving 
the king and my children ! " 

The cramps and pressure on her breast in- 
creased on the night of Wednesday, the 18th 
of July. Toward three o'clock her father was 
called, as he had commanded, and when he saw 
how much worse she had become, he said de- 
voutly, " Lord, thy ways are not our ways." 

About an hour later the king arrived with 
his two eldest sons. It was a dull morning, 
the sky being overcast. When Louisa heard 
of their arrival she was full of joy at the 
thought of seeing her loved ones once more. 
The king learned from the physician the cer- 
tainty of her approaching dissolution, and was 
overwhelmed with grief. When the grand- 
mother said that " nothing was impossible with 



200 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

God," he uttered bitter words of sorrow, for he 
seemed to think he was doomed to misfortune : 

" Oh if she were not mine she would live ; 
but since she is my wife she will surely die ! " 

He hastened from the chamber of death 
in order to compose himself. The queen then 
said, 

" Tell him not to be so much agitated, or I 
shall die instantly." 

He composed himself, and remained alone 
with her until another cramp seized her, when, 
although the physician came in immediately, 
he was unable to afford her relief. The king 
sat on the bed and held her right hand, while 
her sister held her left. The head of the suf- 
ferer lay on the breast of her dear friend, the 
Frau Von Berg. She said feebly, 

" Nothing can relieve me now but death." 

At ten minutes before nine, on the morning 
of the 19th of July, 1810, when her head sank 
back, and her eyes closed, she whispered, 
" Lord Jesus, make it short." Her prayer was 



ILLNESS AND DEA TH. 20I 

answered. Five minutes later, and her puri- 
fied spirit left its earthly tenement and fled to 
its heavenly home. 

The king had sank down, overcome with 
grief, but he soon raised himself again and 
closed the sightless eyes of his beloved Louisa. 
He then hastened and brought his two sons, 
the crown prince and Prince William. They 
fell on their knees by the bedside and bedewed 
the hands of their mother with their burning 
tears. The king and the duke fell into each 
other's arms, and remained long embraced. 
Louisa's features remained beautiful even in 
death. A halo seemed now to hover about 
her brow, and on her lips were victory and 
peace. This is still to be seen in the portrait 
taken immediately after her death, which is 
preserved in the castle of Monbijou in Berlin. 

" On examination it was found that a poly- 
pus, with spreading branches, had grown into 
her heart, out of which it had crushed the life. 
Thus, literally, she had died of a broken heart. 



202 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

" The news of the queen's death, at the early 
age of thirty-four, caused the deepest sorrow- 
throughout the land. And as the death-knell 
was sounded in city and hamlet, the praise of 
her saintly virtues was on every lip, and grief 
for her untimely fate, caused, as it was univer- 
sally believed, by the miseries of the war, was 
the burden of every heart." * 

The announcement of her death was made 
in feeling terms from all the pulpits in the 
kingdom. We give here the earnest expres- 
sions of one of the clergy, which indicates the 
spirit of all : — 

" Great have been the blessings that this 
country has enjoyed through the goodness of 
our remarkable queen. How can our hearts 
cease to thrill with love and gratitude as we 
recall the fidelity which she has shown to our 
country, and the pure example that she has left 
behind ? She has fought her last earthly bat- 
tle, and now wears a far brighter crown than 

* " The Perfect Light," pp. 128-9. 



ILLNESS AND DEA TH. 203 

that earthly one that she wore with so much 
dignity and grace while here below. May 
trust in God alleviate the unutterable grief of 
our king ! May he go forward in his clearly 
defined path, trusting in the same Providence 
that has blessed him in the past ! May the 
pure spirit of the departed queen be poured 
out in rich measure on the crown prince, who 
is to be our ruler in future years ! His tears 
fall thickly over his deceased mother, and well 
they may, for he has lost in her the greatest 
human support of his life. May he have the 
same trust in God which his sainted mother 
enjoyed ! May our beloved Fatherland receive 
from Heaven all those rich blessings which the 
patriotic Louisa invoked upon it ! and may all 
our countrymen aspire to the greatness and 
goodness of her life ! " 

On the 27th of July her royal remains were 
conveyed to Berlin and placed in the cathedral. 
From there, on the 23d of December, they 
were removed to their last resting-place at 



204 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

Charlottenburg, and were followed by a long 
concourse of people. A contemporary wrote : 

"Each family seemed and felt as sad as 
though it had lost one of its own members. 
Countless tears were shed as the hearse passed 
on which bore her precious remains. The 
greater portion of the inhabitants were clad in 
mourning. Through all Prussia, nay, through 
all Germany, was felt the deepest grief, so dear 
was this beloved queen to the people. She 
had given a noble example to the whole Ger- 
man Fatherland of piety, purity, simplicity, 
domestic virtue, humility in prosperity, courage 
in times of misfortune ; in short, an example of 
a true and unblemished life, in small as well as 
great things, until death." 

"The king sought in every way to give ex- 
pression to the true and tender love which had 
given the charm to his life. He always wore 
the portrait of the queen concealed in the dec- 
oration of the Black Eagle. Her beautiful bust, 
which was modeled by Ranch, was placed above 



ILLNESS AND DEA TH. 205 

his bed, on which he spread with his own 
hands, before retiring to rest, a shawl that she 
had been accustomed to wear. Her toilette 
service was arranged in the adjoining room as 
she left it, with her Bible beside it — the book 
in which she had found such comfort and joy." 

The king desired to connect the memory of 
his deceased Louisa with works of Christian 
love, on which her name could be bestowed. 
He consulted with Bishop Eylert, and ulti- 
mately two institutions were founded, the Lou- 
isen-denkmal, and the Louis en-stiftung. The 
denkmal, or memorial, was designed to com- 
memorate the matrimonial happiness which the 
king and queen had enjoyed. A fund was set 
apart which furnished three hundred dollars a 
year, to be divided between three bridal coup- 
les. The royal bounty was given every year 
on the . 19th of July, at nine o'clock in the 
morning, the day and hour of Queen Lou- 
isa's death. The king was very particular 
that the greatest care should be taken in the 



206 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

selection of those persons who were the most 
deserving. 

The Loidsen-stiftung, or Louisa's institution, 
was a work of far wider scope. It was, in real- 
ity, founded on Louisa's own desire, expressed 
to the king on their return from St. Peters- 
burg, where she had seen the institution 
founded by the Empress Dowager of Russia, 
for the benefit of ladies in reduced circum- 
stances ; those among them who were still 
young were educated as governesses. 

The iron cross, with its motto, "With God 
for King and Country," worn with such pride 
by citizens of all classes who distinguished 
themselves in the war of liberation, was insti- 
tuted by the king in 1814, on Louisa's birth- 
day ; and the Louis en-orden, or Order of Lou- 
isa, was established in the same year, on 
the anniversary of his birth. The following 
words, taken from his address on the occasion, 
sufficiently describe his purpose in founding 
this order : 



ILLNESS AND DEA TH. 20/ 

" Our women, inspired with the noblest cour- 
age, have cheerfully yielded their husbands and 
sons for the defense of the fatherland. By 
their soothing care the sufferings of the sick 
and wounded have been alleviated, their sym- 
pathy has given consolation and support. 
Therefore we have determined to do honor to 
the female sex, and to testify our high esteem 
for noble women, by creating an order to be 
worn by them." 

The insignia of the order is a golden cross, 
with the letter L in black enamel on an azure 
ground, the letter being encircled by stars. 
On the back of the cross are engraved the 
dates 1813 and 18 14. Like the Iron Cross, it is 
worn with a white ribbon, and fastened with a 
bow on the left breast. Young and old women 
are alike eligible for this distinction, the num- 
ber being limited to one hundred. 

The order, like that of the Iron Cross, is 

open to all classes. The obligation Hes on the 

committee to collect the fullest possible ac- 
14 



208 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

count of the most devoted services done by 
women throughout the kingdom of Prussia, 
and, after thorough examination, to choose the 
worthiest, and present them to the king* 

The king made the Princess Wilham of 
Prussia, who was an intimate friend of the 
queen, the directress of this order. The fit- 
ness of the selection lay in the remarkable re- 
semblance between the princess and the queen, 
and in the love and afifection that the former 
entertained for the latter. The following pas- 
sage from a letter, written immediately after 
Louisa's death by the Princess William to the 
Baron Von Stein, is an affecting witness to the 
real reverence and love in which the princess 
held the queen : — 

" Berlin, Dec. 14, 1810. 

"It is impossible to explain every thing in 

writing ; but I should so much like . to tell 

you how all the attractiveness of life is over 

for me, now that our beloved queen is gone. 

* Hudson, Lousia, Queen of Prussia. Vol. II, p. 343. 



ILLNESS AND DBA TH. 209 

She was so unspeakably kind and sisterly to 
me that I miss her every moment, and with 
every fresh event. How I regret every word 
that I may ever have spoken against her, since 
I have clearly seen that it could only have 
been envy which induced me to do it, because 
she was so much better than I, 

*' The king is worthy of all reverence in this 
sorrow, which will last with his life ; he shows 
so much Christian resignation and patience ; 
he is so kind to me that I can scarcely look at 
him without tears." 

We can say of Louisa what King Max of 
Bavaria said with truth of this same Princess 
William, his mother-in-law : 

" Star and crow;i of Gennan women, 

Go in peace unto thy rest ; 
Near the throne, yet only seeking 

How to serve thy Lord the best. 
***** 
" In those bitter days of pain. 

When the scourge our country beat, 
Binding Europe with his chain. 

Bringing princes to his feet ; 



Q UEEN L O UISA OF PR US SI A . 

Keenly, truly, did she feel, 

Trembling for her country's fame, 

And with love and faithful zeal 
Strove for freedom's holy name. 

" Stood with angel love untiring 
Where the wounded warrior lay. 

While her youthful smiles inspiring, 
Cheered the victor on his way. 



" Now on you, ye German women, — 

What she was ye surely know, — 
Still is Germany depending 

In the hour of trial and woe ; 
Cherish zeal's inspiring flame. 

For your country's fame and good; 
We are one in birth and name ; 

Tie the bonds of brotherhood." 





XVI. 

t$he ^ountt|y an4 the i^ing. 

TEFFENS relates the impression 
which the death of the queen made at 
Halle, which then belonged to the 
kingdom of WestphaHa : 

" There was a commotion in the town during 
the first days after the news, which was only 
equaled by that caused by the overthrow of 
the Prussian armies in the late war. Grief was 
depicted upon every countenance ; there was 
mourning in every house, and every body 
seemed impressed with a feeling that the na- 
tion's last faint hope had departed with the 
life of this adored woman. Her death was 
generally ascribed to the unhappy condition of 
the country. Many said to themselves, the 
enemy has slain the guardian angel of the 



212 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

people ; and a feeling of revenge, and an un- 
spoken oath to keep her memory in inviolable 
constancy, strengthened the national resolve to 
seize every opportunity to throw off the odious 
yoke." 

The queen remained after her death, as be- 
fore, the heroine of a war which the people 
were determined to bring to a successful issue. 

The influence of this good woman did not 
die with her. Her spirit seemed to be at work 
in the last defeat ; and what Korner sang in 
the year 1813, 

" Luise schwebe segnend um den Gatten," * 

was the expression of the general feeling of all 
who loved her — that from the rest which was 
granted to her the departed one could behold 
with glorified eyes the conflicts in which her 
husband and the nation were engaged. 
Fouque, Schenkendorf, and others, as well as 
Korner, have tuned their harps in her praise. 

* Louisa, o'er thy consort blessings shed. 



THE COUNTRY AND THE KING. 21 3 

The king, who had sunk into the deepest 
grief on account of his defeats, received now 
the heaviest blow by the death of the queen. 
To the Count Henkel von Donnersmark, on 
their first meeting, he could only say the fol- 
lowing words : " This is the hardest blow." 

Bowed down by this affliction he passed the 
next year of his life, and then, trusting in God, 
he began the new war against Napoleon like 
a knight avenging his insulted beloved one. 
Arndt says : 

" The king had the gifts of uprightness, 
bravery, and piety, but he was chilling and 
reserved. In his quiet, plain appearance and 
gesture there was an expression of deep sad- 
ness ; he was the sorrowful knight, who could 
not forget his lost loved one. Never could he 
forget his beloved Louisa, who was snatched 
away in the bloom of her loveliness, killed by 
the trouble and misfortunes of the times. 
Since that time, in 18 10, when she died in her 
Mecklenburg horpe, his face has never beamed 



214 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

with pleasure. He was scarcely able to enjoy 
with his subjects the rejoicing consequent on 
the victories of 1813, 18 14, and 181 5, but lived 
in the solitude of his own heart and its sorrow. 
As Beatrice, lost to Dante for this life, was his 
guide to heaven, and became to him the glori- 
fied personification of a saving knowledge of 
God, so the image of the glorified queen hov- 
ered before the eyes of the king, not only as 
that of his beloved spouse, but as an imper- 
sonation of all the grief suffered on account 
of their country, and the struggles to be sur- 
mounted in its behalf. It really was the case, 
that the king fought against Napoleon not only 
for his kingdom, but for the honor of his be- 
loved one." 

When the king went to the war he took with 
him some small articles that had belonged to 
his beloved Louisa. Every thing that she pos- 
sessed when living was doubly dear to him now. 
From the victorious field of Leipzig he has- 
tened to Berlin ; his steps were first turned 



THE CO UNTR Y AND THE KING. 2 1 5 

toward the cathedral, where, with the people, 
he gave thanks to God. As soon as he could 
escape from the crowd he hastened to Charlot- 
tenburg, to the grave of the queen, uncovered 
his head, laid the laurel wreath which he had 
brought with him upon the tomb, and re- 
mained in silent prayer. He then returned to 
the army. 

It is probable that the tumultuous events 
which the king had passed through from 1806 
to 1 8 14 had deepened and strengthened his 
faith. 

He still adhered to those strict religious views 
which he expressed to minister Von Wollner on 
assuming the reins of government : — 

" I honor religion myself, and willingly follow 
its blessed precepts, and should be very sorry 
to rule over a nation which had no religion ; 
but I know that it is, and always must be, a 
matter of the heart, and of the feelings, and of 
personal conviction, and that it is to forward the 
cause of virtue and righteousness anions: men. 



2 1 6 Q UEEN L UISA OF PR US SI A . 

It must not be degraded into a meaningless 
babble by any formal compulsion. Reason and 
philosophy must be its inseparable companions. 
It will then be able to stand secure of itse]f, 
without needing the authority of. those who 
claim the right to impose their doctrines on 
future generations, and to dictate to posterity 
what it is to think in every age, and under 
all circumstances, upon subjects which have 
the most powerful influence upon its well 
being." 

When at Konigsberg, after the great defeat, 
he had a desire for the word of God. Barow- 
sky, afterward archbishop, was there with this 
most powerful source of comfort. He read 
and explained to the king the striking nar- 
ratives of the book of Daniel, and the seeds of 
a firm faith were sown in his agitated mind. 
He remained true to his opinion, that religion 
must be a matter " of the heart, and of the feel- 
ings, and of personal conviction." 

" The most barren and miserable view which 



THE COUNTRY AND THE KING. 21/ 

a man can possibly hold of Christianity and its 
divine ordinances," said the king, " is that wise 
and enlightened people will hold religion in 
reverence, because, although quite superfluous 
to the educated, it is necessary and good for 
keeping the middle and lower classes in order 
by means of the superstition which it instills ; 
the higher and highest classes require no such 
bugbear. If this is enlightenment, I do not 
know what obscurity is. It is like a sunstroke, 
which takes away your senses." 

" His piety," says Baur, " was an affair of the 
heart and of personal conviction. He could not 
dispense with it in his conflict with sin, for the 
patient bearing of the cross, and the hope of 
everlasting life. He loved the Bible with the 
love which is peculiar to the Protestant Chris- 
tian, He did not explain away its doctrines. 
He had a deep feeling of the sinfulness of the 
human race, and therefore full confidence in 
the mercy of Jesus Christ. He was earnest in 

prayer, for he knew that prayer is heard, and 
13 



2 1 8 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

can accomplish much when it is earnest. He 
could not dispense with pubhc worship. He 
felt it beneficial to join with his people on 
the same level. He rejected flattery with real 
indignation, especially if it ventured to ad- 
dress him in holy places. The house of the 
Lord was holy to him, because he knew that 
there divine love condescends to meet the 
humble confessor of sin and the faithful pe- 
titioner for divine mercy in the proclamation 
of the word and the administration of the 
sacrament. 

" The simplicity of his character developed 
itself in sacred things, in the humility of the 
sinner, who, like all other men, can only live 
by faith. But though his faith was firm in the 
atonement of Jesus Christ, his Christianity had 
a thoroughly moral tendency, as a genuine 
Gospel faith always has. The king was up- 
right in the highest degree. He was diligent 
in his calling, after the hereditary principle of 
Prussian monarchs, that a king should consider 



THE COUNTRY AND THE KING. 2ig 

himself the chief servant of the State ; benevo- 
lent, with royal generosity ; having a tender 
sympathy for special cases of distress ; chaste 
in word and deed, and especially severe upon 
transgressors of the seventh commandment ; 
and animated by a powerful impulse to labor 
for the general good. He strove to attain to 
that attribute of charity that ' seeketh not her 
own.' But above all other things, it was his 
desire to revive among his people an apprecia- 
tion of religion, which had, unfortunately, so 
much dechned, by openly acknowledging his 
adherence to divine truth. This effort was the 
origin of the Holy Alliance, which Frederic- 
William entered into after the victory with the 
Emperors of Russia and Austria, and of which 
he was perhaps the originator. 

"'My comfort in disquiet, my hope in God,' 
was the superscription of his will, an appropri- 
ate motto for a king who had seen so much 
adversity both in peace and war, but who had 
struggled against it with a conscientious mind, 



J 

r 



2 20 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A . 

and whose consolation was the prospect of that 
rest which remaineth for the people of God." * 

Louisa was buried within a small Doric tem- 
ple at the extremity of a shady walk, in a 
retired part of the garden at Charlottenburg. 

In this same place there had stood a temple 
or summer-house,- as we should call it, built in 
the Grecian style of architecture. The queen 
had habitually frequented this secluded spot, to 
enjoy quiet recreation and refreshment with 
her husband and children. To the king that 
temple and its site now seemed sacred to the 
memory of the departed one. He had the lit- 
tle edifice removed to Peacock's Island, and on 
the spot where it had stood he raised another, 
somewhat similar in style, but far superior in 
construction, and built of rare and durable 
materials. A flight of eight steps leads up 
through the iron door to the interior of the 
mausoleum ; the exterior is of red granite, and 
four highly polished Doric pillars support the 

* " Religious Life in Germany," pp. 104, 5. 



THE COUNTRY AND THE KING. 221 

entablature. The Alpha and Omega (A — S2) on 
the facade of the triangular pediment are sug- 
gestive of Him who holds 'the spirits of the de- 
parted in safe keeping : 

" I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, be- 
hold, I am alive for evermore. Amen." 

In this last abode the remains of Queen 
Louisa were deposited. It was exactly one 
year since she had returned to Berlin after the 
calamities of war, and seventeen years since 
she entered the Prussian capital as a bride. 
Sunbeams and shadows cast their checkered 
shade on this sepulchral edifice. The dark 
grove or wood of larch trees which forms the 
inclosing avenue, though thickly planted, can- 
not exclude the light of day, or even the moon- 
shine of night. This little temple is sheltered 
on all sides by trees — pines and larches, yews 
and cypresses — and among them some which 
annually shed their leaves, to tell of peace in 
decay, of hope in death, of joy in resurrection. 

Within this exquisitely beautiful mausoleum 



222 Q UEEN L VISA OF PR US SI A. 

rests the figure of the beloved queen, with the 
hands folded naturally upon the breast, and in 
an attitude of profound repose. "She seems 
not dead, but sleeping ; and the great artist, 
Bottiger, said he dared not speak lest he 
should awaken the blessed spirit to a world of 
care. 

" The Prussian eagle at the foot of the sar- 
cophagus, showing that she belonged to the 
house of Hohenzollern, was modeled from a 
magnificent bird taken captive in the Ap- 
ennines. 

"This monument is the masterpiece of the 
sculptor Ranch, who worked it out under the 
inspiration of love and grief, for he shared the 
general feeling of enthusiasm for this sainted 
woman, who had fostered his rising genius." * 

When the king was meditating upon erect- 
ing a superb monument to the memory of his 
departed Louisa, he thought of employing 
Canova ; but Ranch, who had earnestly desired 

* " The Perfect Light," p. 82. 



THE COUNTRY AND THE KING. 223 

and hoped to do it, took the disappointment so 
much to heart, that, with Canova's consent, the 
work was transferred to him. Ranch returned 
from Berlin to Italy to execute the design, divid- 
ing his time between Carrara and Rome. 

An extraordinary adventure befell this beau- 
tiful piece of sculpture. The ship that was 
conveying it from Italy was captured by an 
American privateer, and re-taken by an En- 
glish vessel, whose commander put the monu- 
ment safely on shore at Jersey, whence it was 
forwarded to Hamburg. Rauch, when travel- 
ing homeward by land, read, at Munich, an 
account of the capture of his work. Despair- 
ing of its recovery, he was on the point of 
returning to Italy to recommence his labor, 
when he heard that the sculpture had reached 
its destination. 

On the fifth anniversary of Queen Louisa's 

death the mausoleum was opened to receive 

this beautiful work of art. The admiration 

that it attracted soon gave Rauch a European 
15 



224 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

reputation. Germany acknowledges him as 
the greatest sculptor she has ever produced, 
and his numerous works are scattered over 
that country, divided among the chief cities of 
the empire, Berlin, however, having the greater 
part. 

King Frederic William III. survived his be- 
loved Louisa thirty years. He died on the 7th 
of June, 1840, having reigned forty-three years. 
A long and glorious reign it was, though heav- 
ily clouded through the years from Jena to 
Waterloo. It was also an eventful and pros- 
perous reign, for, notwithstanding the misfor- 
tunes against which he had to contend, he was 
permitted to have the satisfaction of leaving 
the country more extensive, mofe powerful, 
and more wealthy than it had ever been 
before. 

The aged monarch, who had attained his 
seventieth year, was very dear to his people, 
and they could not endure the thought of 
parting with him. His spifit passed gently 



THE COUNTRY AND THE KING. 22$ 

away, and his remains were conveyed to Char- 
lottenburg, and laid beside those of Queen 
Louisa. His statue, "with his martial cloak 
around him," was placed over the sarcophagus 
by his son, the crown prince. It was executed 
by Ranch. On either side is a marble can- 
delabrum, that with the Fates by Ranch, and 
that with the Three Muses by Tieck. 

In the whole mausoleum, indeed, we see a 
monument bearing witness to the artistic ge- 
nius, the pure taste, and the high religious feel- 
ing of his son, Frederic William IV., who 
improved on and completed what his father 
had begun. He made it beautiful as it is, and 
hallowed it with many a text of Scripture. 
Turn which way you will the eye is attracted 
by some glorious promise, or some striking 
words which assure us of the indissoluble con- 
nection between this transitory life and life 
eternal* 

* Cf. Hudson, Louisa, Qtteen of Prussia, vol. ii, pp. 366- 
373- 



226 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

Can we wonder that the mausoleum of Char- 
lottenburg is one of the most attractive places 
to the Prussian people ? 



THE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA'S TOMB. 

BY FELICIA HEMANS. 

It stands where northern willows weep, 

A temple fair and lone ; 
Soft shadows o'er its marble sweep, 

From cypress branches thrown ; 
While silently around it spread, 
Thou feel'st the presence of the dead. 

And what within is richly shrined ? 

A sculptured woman's form, 
Lovely, in perfect rest reclined. 

As one beyond the storm : 
Yet not of death, but slumber, lies 
The solemn sweetness of those eyes. 

The folded hands, the calm, pure face, 

The mantle's quiet flow, 
The gentle yet majestic grace 

Throned on the matron brow ; 
These, in that scene of tender gloom, 
With a still glory, robe the tomb. 



THE COUNTRY AND THE KING. 22/ 

There stands an eagle, at the feet 

Of the fair image wrought ; 
A kingly emblem — not unmeet 

To wake yet deeper thought ; 
She whose high heart finds rest below 
Was royal in her birth and woe. 

There are pale garlands hung above, 

Of dying scent and hue ; 
She was a mother — in her love 

How sorrowfully true ! 
Oh ! hallowed long be every leaf, 
The record of her children's grief: 

She saw their birthright's warrior- crown 

Of olden glory spoiled, 
The standard of their sire's borne down, 

The shield's bright blazon soiled ; 
She met the tempest meekly brave. 
Then turned o'erwearied to the grave. 

She slumbered, but it came — it came, 

Her land's redeeming hour. 
With the glad shout and signal flame 

Sent on from tower to tower. 
Fast through the realm a spirit moved, 
'Twas hers, the lofty and the loved ! 

Then was her name a note that rung 

To rouse bold hearts from sleep ; 
Her memory, as a banner flung 

Forth by the Baltic deep ; 



228 QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 

Her grief, a bitter vial poured 
To sanctify the avenger's sword. 

And the crowned eagle spread again 

Her pinion to the sun ; 
And the strong land shook off its chain, 

So was the triumph won ! 
But woe for earth, where sorrow's tone 
Still blends with Victory's — She was gone. 




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